1“Has not man a hard service on earth,
and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
2Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
3so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
4When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’
But the night is long,
and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
5My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.
6My 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.
8The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;
while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.
9As the cloud fades and vanishes,
so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;
10he returns no more to his house,
nor does his place know him anymore.

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.
12Am I the sea, or a sea monster,
that you set a guard over me?
13When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,
my couch will ease my complaint,’
14then you scare me with dreams
and terrify me with visions,
15so that I would choose strangling
and death rather than my bones.
16I loathe my life; I would not live forever.
Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
17What is man, that you make so much of him,
and that you set your heart on him,
18visit him every morning
and test him every moment?
19How long will you not look away from me,
nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
20If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?
Why have you made me your mark?
Why have I become a burden to you?
21Why do you not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
you will seek me, but I shall not be.”