7:1 "Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hireling? |
7:2 As a servant earnestly desires the shade, and as a hireling looks for his wages, |
7:3 So I am made to possess months of vanity, and weary nights are appointed to me. |
7:4 When I lie down, I say, 'When shall I rise?' But the night is long, and I am full of tossing to and fro until the dawning of the day. |
7:5 My flesh is clothed with maggots and dusty scabs; my skin cracks open and runs with pus. |
7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope. |
7:7 O remember that my life is a breath; my eye shall no more see good. |
7:8 The eye of him who has seen me shall see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall be no more. |
7:9 As the cloud fades and vanishes away, so he who goes down to the grave shall come up no more. |
7:10 He shall return no more to his house, nor shall his place know him any more. |
7:11 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. |
7:12 Am I like the sea, or a whale, that You set a watch over me? |
7:13 When I say, 'My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint,' |
7:14 Then You scare me with dreams, and terrify me with visions; |
7:15 So that my soul chooses strangling, and death rather than my life. |
7:16 I despise my life; I will not live forever; let me alone, for my days are vanity. |
7:17 What is man, that You should magnify him, and that You should set Your heart on him, |
7:18 And that You should visit him every morning, and try him every moment? |
7:19 How long? Will You not look away from me, nor let me alone until I swallow down my spittle? |
7:20 If I have sinned, what shall I do to You, O Watcher of men? Why have You set me as Your target, so that I am a burden to myself? |
7:21 And why do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For now I shall sleep in the dust, and You shall seek me in the morning, but I shall not be." |