Job 7 - ESV Bible - "Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not...

1 "Has not man ¹a hard service on earth, and are not his ²days like the days of a hired hand?

2 Like a slave who longs for ³the shadow, and like ⁴a hired hand who looks for his ⁵wages,

3 so I am allotted months of ⁶emptiness, ⁷and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

4 ⁸When 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 ⁹worms and ¹⁰dirt; my skin hardens, then ¹¹breaks out afresh.

6 My days are ¹²swifter than ¹³a weaver's shuttle and come to their end without hope.

7 "Remember that my life is a ¹⁴breath; my eye will never again see good.

8 ¹⁵The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while your eyes are on me, ¹⁶I shall be gone.

9 As ¹⁷the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who ¹⁸goes down to Sheol does not come up;

10 he ¹⁹returns no more to his house, nor does his ²⁰place know him anymore.

11 "Therefore I will not ²¹restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will ²²complain in ²³the bitterness of my soul.

12 Am I the sea, or ²⁴a sea monster, that you set a guard over me?

13 ²⁵When I say, 'My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,'

14 then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions,

15 so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my ²⁶bones.

16 I ²⁷loathe my life; I would not live forever. ²⁸Leave me alone, for my days are ²⁹a breath.

17 ³⁰What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him,

18 ³¹visit him every morning and ³²test him every moment?

19 How long will you not ³³look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?

20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me ³⁴your mark? Why have I become a burden to you?

21 Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in ³⁵the earth; you will ³⁶seek me, ³⁷but I shall not be."

Job 7 ESV