1“Is there not a set amount of time on earth allotted to man? Are not his days also like the days of a hireling? 2As a servant seeks the shade, and as a hireling eagerly awaits the wages from his work: 3So am I made to allotted months of vanity and suffering. 4When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, and the night be gone?’ And I toss and turn until the dawning of the day. 5My flesh is covered with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and has become loathsome. 6My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope. 7Oh, remember that my life is a breath; my eye shall never again see good. 8The eye of him that has seen me shall see me no more; your eyes are upon me, and I am not. 9As the cloud is dispersed and vanishes; so he that goes down to the grave and shall come up no more. 10He shall not return to his house, nor shall 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 a sea, or a sea monster, that You set a watch over me? 13When I say, ‘My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint’; 14Then You terrify me with dreams, and visions, 15So that my soul chooses suffocation and death, rather than my painful life. 16I loathe it; I would not live forever. Let me alone; for my days are vanity. 17What is man, that You should magnify him, and that You should regard him, 18And that You should visit him every morning, and test him every moment? 19How long will You not look away from me, nor let me alone till I swallow my spittle? 20If I have sinned, what did I do to You, O You Preserver of men? Why have You set me as a mark (target) for You, so that I am a burden to myself? 21And why do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For I shall soon sleep in the dust; and You shall seek me in the morning, but I shall be no more.”