Chapter 7

  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?  

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  As a servant desiring the shades of evening, and a workman looking for his payment:  

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  So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose, and nights of weariness are given to me.  

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  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.  

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  My flesh is covered with worms and dust; my skin gets hard and then is cracked again.  

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  My days go quicker than the cloth-worker's thread, and come to an end without hope.  

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  O, keep in mind that my life is wind: my eye will never again see good.  

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  The eye of him who sees me will see me no longer: your eyes will be looking for me, but I will be gone.  

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  A cloud comes to an end and is gone; so he who goes down into the underworld comes not up again.  

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  He will not come back to his house, and his place will have no more knowledge of him.  

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  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.  

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  Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me?  

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  When I say, In my bed I will have comfort, there I will get rest from my disease;  

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  Then you send dreams to me, and visions of fear;  

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  So that a hard death seems better to my soul than my pains.  

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  I have no desire for life, I would not be living for ever! Keep away from me, for my days are as a breath.  

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  What is man, that you have made him great, and that your attention is fixed on him,  

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  And that your hand is on him every morning, and that you are testing him every minute?  

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  How long will it be before your eyes are turned away from me, so that I may have a minute's breathing-space?  

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  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?  

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  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.  

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