1Is there not warfare for man on earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hired man? 2Like a servant who pants for the shade, and like a hired man who waits eagerly for his wages, 3so I have been allotted months of futility, and restless nights have been appointed to me. 4When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise from the long night? For I have had my fill of tossing until the twilight of the dawn. 5My flesh is clothed with worms and clods, my skin is hardened and cracked and oozes. 6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are used up without hope. 7O remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never return to see good. 8The eye of him who sees me shall watch me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I am not. 9As the cloud vanishes and goes away, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up. 10He shall never again return to his house, nor shall his place know him anymore. 11Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the distress of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 12Am I a sea, or a sea serpent, 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 my soul chooses strangling and death rather than my body. 16I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are but a breath. 17What is man, that You should magnify him, that You should set Your heart upon him, 18that You should visit him every morning, and try him every moment? 19How long will You not look away from me, and let me alone until I swallow my spittle? 20Have I sinned? What have I done to You, O Watcher of men? Why have You set me as Your target, so that I am a burden to myself? 21Why then do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust, and You shall seek me diligently, but I will no longer be.