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)