The days of a hired man
1Is a mortal’s life on earth not hard service? Are his days not the days of a hired man? 2Like a slave gasping for the shade, like a hired man waiting for his wages, 3so I have been allotted months of emptiness, and nights of trouble have been counted out to me. 4When I lie down I say, “When will I get up?” But the night drags on, and I am full of tossing until first light. 5My flesh is dressed in maggots and crusts of dirt; my skin hardens over, then breaks open again. 6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they run out with no hope left. 7Remember: my life is a wind; my eye will not see good again. 8The eye that looks for me will not find me; your eyes are on me, and I am gone. 9As a cloud thins out and drifts away, so the one who goes down to Sheol does not come up. 10He never returns to his house, and his own place knows him no more.
Am I the Sea, or the Dragon?
11So I will not hold my mouth shut. I will speak out of the anguish of my spirit; I will complain out of the bitterness of my soul. 12Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that you post a guard over me? 13When I say, “My bed will comfort me, my couch will carry some of my complaint,” 14then you shatter me with dreams and terrify me with visions, 15so that I would rather be strangled — death, rather than these bones of mine. 16I have had enough. I will not live forever. Let me be — my days are a breath. 17What is a mortal, that you make so much of him, that you set your heart on him, 18that you inspect him every morning and test him every moment? 19How long until you look away from me, until you let me alone long enough to swallow my spit? 20If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you watcher of men? Why have you made me your target, so that I have become a burden to myself? 21And why do you not pardon my offense and take my guilt away? For soon I will lie down in the dust; you will look for me, and I will not be.
