1 - Has not man his ordered time of trouble on the earth? and are not his days like the days of a servant working for payment?
2 - As a servant desiring the shades of evening, and a workman looking for his payment:
3 - So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose, and nights of weariness are given to me.
4 - When I go to my bed, I say, When will it be time to get up? but the night is long, and I am turning from side to side till morning light.
5 - My flesh is covered with worms and dust; my skin gets hard and then is cracked again.
6 - My days go quicker than the cloth-worker's thread, and come to an end without hope.
7 - O, keep in mind that my life is wind: my eye will never again see good.
8 - The eye of him who sees me will see me no longer: your eyes will be looking for me, but I will be gone.
9 - A cloud comes to an end and is gone; so he who goes down into the underworld comes not up again.
10 - He will not come back to his house, and his place will have no more knowledge of him.
11 - So I will not keep my mouth shut; I will let the words come from it in the pain of my spirit, my soul will make a bitter outcry.
12 - Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me?
13 - When I say, In my bed I will have comfort, there I will get rest from my disease;
14 - Then you send dreams to me, and visions of fear;
15 - So that a hard death seems better to my soul than my pains.
16 - I have no desire for life, I would not be living for ever! Keep away from me, for my days are as a breath.
17 - What is man, that you have made him great, and that your attention is fixed on him,
18 - And that your hand is on him every morning, and that you are testing him every minute?
19 - How long will it be before your eyes are turned away from me, so that I may have a minute's breathing-space?
20 - If I have done wrong, what have I done to you, O keeper of men? why have you made me a mark for your blows, so that I am a weariness to myself?
21 - And why do you not take away my sin, and let my wrongdoing be ended? for now I go down to the dust, and you will be searching for me with care, but I will be gone.
