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 ¹ [Job still speaking] "Is there not an appointed time of hard service for man upon earth? Are not his days like the days of a hireling?

 ² As a servant earnestly desires the shadow, and as a hireling looks for the reward of his work;

 ³ So I am allotted months of futility, and nights of anguish are appointed to me.

 ⁴ When I lie down, I say, 'When shall I arise, and the night be gone?' Then I am full of tossings to and fro to the dawning of the day.

 ⁵ My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken and has become loathsome.

 ⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.

 ⁷ O remember that my life is wind; my eye shall see good no more.

 ⁸ The eye of him who has seen me, shall see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I will no longer be.

 ⁹ As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to the grave shall come up no more.

 ¹⁰ He shall no longer return to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

 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.

 ¹² Am I a sea, or a whale, that you set a watch over me?

 ¹³ When I say, 'My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaints;'

 ¹⁴ Then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions;¹

 ¹⁵ So that my soul chooses strangling and death rather than my life.

 ¹⁶ I loathe it; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

 ¹⁷ What is man, that you should magnify him? And that you should set your heart upon him?

 ¹⁸ And that you should visit him every morning, and try him every moment?

 ¹⁹ How long will you not depart from me, nor let me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

 ²⁰ If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O you preserver of men? Why have you set me as a target for you, so that I am a burden to myself and you?

 ²¹ And why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall sleep in the dust; and you shall seek me in the morning, but I shall not be there."