[1] Is there not an appointed time to man on earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
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[2] As a servant earnestly desires the shadow, and as an hireling looks for the reward of his work:
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[3] So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.
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[4] When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro to the dawning of the day.
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[5] My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.
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[6] My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
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[7] O remember that my life is wind: my eye shall no more see good.
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[8] The eye of him that has seen me shall see me no more: your eyes are on me, and I am not.
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[9] As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away: so he that goes down to the grave shall come up no more.
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[10] He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.
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[11] Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
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[12] Am I a sea, or a whale, that you set a watch over me?
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[13] When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaints;
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[14] Then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions:
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[15] So that my soul chooses strangling, and death rather than my life.
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[16] I loathe it; I would not live always: let me alone; for my days are vanity.
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[17] What is man, that you should magnify him? and that you should set your heart on him?
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[18] And that you should visit him every morning, and try him every moment?
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[19] How long will you not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?
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[20] I have sinned; what shall I do to you, O you preserver of men? why have you set me as a mark against you, so that I am a burden to myself?
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[21] And why do you not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and you shall seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.
