1Job continued, ‘Don’t all human beings have to work hard on this earth? Aren’t their days like the days of hired workers?2I’ve been like a slave who longs for the evening shadows to come. I’ve been like a hired worker who is waiting to be paid.3I’ve been given several months that were useless to me. My nights have been filled with suffering.4When I lie down I think, “How long will it be before I can get up?” The night drags on. I toss and turn until sunrise.5My body is covered with worms and sores. My skin is broken. It has boils all over it.6‘My days pass by faster than a weaver can work. They come to an end. I don’t have any hope.7God, remember that my life is only a breath. I’ll never be happy again.8The eyes that see me now won’t see me anymore. You will look for me. But I’ll be gone.9When a cloud disappears, it’s gone for ever. And anyone who goes down to the grave never returns.10He never comes home again. Even his own family doesn’t remember him.11‘So I won’t keep quiet. When I’m suffering greatly, I’ll speak out. When my spirit is bitter, I’ll tell you how unhappy I am.12Am I the ocean? Am I the sea monster? If I’m not, why do you guard me so closely?13Sometimes I think my bed will comfort me. I think my couch will keep me from being unhappy.14But even then you send me dreams that frighten me. You send me visions that terrify me.15So I would rather choke to death. That would be better than living in this body of mine.16I hate my life. I don’t want to live for ever. Leave me alone. My days don’t mean anything to me.17‘What are human beings that you think so much of them? What are they that you pay so much attention to them?18You check up on them every morning. You test them every moment.19Won’t you ever look away from me? Won’t you leave me alone even for one second?20If I’ve really sinned, tell me what I’ve done to you. You see everything we do. Why do you shoot your arrows at me? Have I become a problem to you?21Why don’t you forgive the wrong things I’ve done? Why don’t you forgive me for my sins? I’ll soon lie down in the dust of my grave. You will search for me. But I’ll be gone.’
Job 7
English Standard Version
Job Continues: My Life Has No Hope
1“Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand? (Job 14:5; Job 14:14; Ps 39:4; Isa 40:2)2Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages, (Le 19:13; Job 14:6; So 2:17; So 4:6; Jer 6:4)3so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me. (Job 7:16; Job 30:17)4When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’ But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn. (De 28:67)5My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh. (Job 2:7; Job 2:8; Isa 14:11)6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and come to their end without hope. (Job 9:25; Isa 38:12)7“Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. (Job 6:26; Ps 78:39)8The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone. (Job 7:2; Job 8:18; Job 20:9; Ps 37:36)9As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up; (Job 21:13; Job 30:15)10he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore. (2Sa 12:23; Job 8:18; Job 10:21; Job 20:9; Ps 103:16)11“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. (1Sa 1:10; Job 3:20; Job 10:1; Job 21:4; Job 21:25; Ps 40:9; Ps 77:3; Isa 38:15)12Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me? (Ge 1:21)13When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’ (Job 9:27)14then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions,15so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. (Job 19:20; Job 30:17)16I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath. (Ex 14:12; Job 7:3; Job 9:21; Job 10:1; Job 10:20; Job 14:6; Ps 39:13)17What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, (Ps 8:4; Ps 144:3; Heb 2:6)18visit him every morning and test him every moment? (Ps 11:4; Ps 17:3)19How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit? (Job 14:6)20If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you? (Job 16:12; La 3:12)21Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.” (Job 7:8; Job 8:5; Job 24:5; Pr 1:28; Da 12:2)