Job 7:1-21

The Brevity of Life

7:1 “Does not humanity have hard service on earth?

Are not their days also

like the days of a hired man?

7:2 Like a servant longing for the evening shadow,

and like a hired man looking for his wages,

7:3 thus I have been made to inherit

months of futility,

and nights of sorrow

have been appointed to me.

7:4 If I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise?’,

and the night stretches on

and I toss and turn restlessly

until the day dawns.

7:5 My body is clothed with worms and dirty scabs;

my skin is broken and festering.

7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle

and they come to an end without hope.

7:7 Remember that my life is but a breath,

that my eyes will never again see happiness.

7:8 The eye of him who sees me now will see me no more;

your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.

7:9 As a cloud is dispersed and then disappears,

so the one who goes down to the grave

does not come up again.

7:10 He returns no more to his house,

nor does his place of residence know him any more.

Job Remonstrates with God

7:11 “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.

7:12 Am I the sea, or the creature of the deep,

that you must put me under guard?

7:13 If I say, “My bed will comfort me,

my couch will ease my complaint,”

7:14 then you scare me with dreams

and terrify me with visions,

7:15 so that I would prefer strangling,

and death more than life.

7:16 I loathe it; I do not want to live forever;

leave me alone, for my days are a vapor!

Insignificance of Humans

7:17 “What is mankind that you make so much of them,

and that you pay attention to them?

7:18 And that you visit them every morning,

and try them every moment?

7:19 Will you never look away from me,

will you not let me alone

long enough to swallow my spittle?

7:20 If I have sinned – what have I done to you,

O watcher of men?

Why have you set me as your target?

Have I become a burden to you?

7:21 And why do you not pardon my transgression,

and take away my iniquity?

For now I will lie down in the dust,

and you will seek me diligently,

but I will be gone.”