Job Chapter 7 Back Next{7:1} "Isn't a man forced to labor on
earth? Aren't his days like the days of a hired hand?
{7:2} As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a
hireling who looks for his wages,
{7:3} so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.
{7:4} When I lie down, I say, 'When shall I arise, and the night be gone?' I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.
{7:5} My
flesh is clothed with worms and clods of
dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
{7:6} My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without
hope.
{7:7} Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye shall no more see good.
{7:8} The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.
{7:9} As the
cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to
Sheol shall come up no more.
{7:10} He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.
{7:11} "Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the
bitterness of my soul.
{7:12} Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard 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 through visions:
{7:15} so that my soul chooses strangling,
death rather than my bones.
{7:16} I loathe my life. I don't want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
{7:17} What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,
{7:18} that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?
{7:19} How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?
{7:20} If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?
{7:21} Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be."
Job Chapter 7 Back Next