Chapter 7

  Is there not a warfare to man upon earth? And are not his days like the days of a hireling?  

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  As a servant that earnestly desireth the shadow, And as a hireling that looketh for his wages:  

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  So am I made to possess months of misery, And wearisome nights are appointed to me.  

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  When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.  

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  My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; My skin closeth up, and breaketh out afresh.  

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  My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, And are spent without hope.  

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  Oh remember that my life is a breath: Mine eye shall no more see good.  

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  The eye of him that seeth me shall behold me no more; Thine eyes shall be upon me, but I shall not be.  

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  As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, So he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more.  

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  He shall return no more to his house, Neither shall his place know him any more.  

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  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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  Am I a sea, or a sea-monster, That thou settest a watch over me?  

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  When I say, My bed shall comfort me, My couch shall ease my complaint;  

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  Then thou scarest me with dreams, And terrifiest me through visions:  

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  So that my soul chooseth strangling, And death rather than [these] my bones.  

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  I loathe [my life]; I would not live alway: Let me alone; for my days are vanity.  

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  What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him, And that thou shouldest set thy mind upon him,  

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  And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, And try him every moment?  

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  How long wilt thou not look away from me, Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?  

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  If I have sinned, what do I unto thee, O thou watcher of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark for thee, So that I am a burden to myself?  

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  And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust; And thou wilt seek me diligently, but I shall not be.  

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