1 "Has not man a hard service upon earth, and are not his days like the days of a hireling?

2 Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hireling who looks for his wages,

3 so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

4 When I lie down I say, `en I lie down I say, "When shall I arise?' But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn.

5 My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.

6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and come to their end without hope.

7 "Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good.

8 The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while thy eyes are upon me, I shall be gone.

9 As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;

10 he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him any more.

11 "Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

12 Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that thou settest a guard over me?

13 When I say, `en I say, "My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,'

14 then thou dost scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions,

15 so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones.

16 I loathe my life; I would not live for ever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath.

17 What is man, that thou dost make so much of him, and that thou dost set thy mind upon him,

18 dost visit him every morning, and test him every moment?

19 How long wilt thou not look away from me, nor let me alone till I swallow my spittle?

20 If I sin, what do I do to thee, thou watcher of men? Why hast thou made me thy mark? Why have I become a burden to thee?

21 Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; thou wilt seek me, but I shall not be."