1Is there not a time of service to man upon earth?

And are not his days like the days of a hireling?

2As a servant that eagerly longeth for the shadow,

And as a hireling that looketh for his wages;

3So am I made to possess—months of vanity,

And wearisome nights are appointed to me.

4When I lie down, I say: ‘When shall I arise?’

But the night is long, and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

5My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust;

My skin closeth up and breaketh out afresh.

6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,

And are spent without hope.

7O remember that my life is a breath;

Mine eye shall no more see good.

8The eye of him that seeth me shall behold me no more;

While Thine eyes are upon me, I am gone.

9As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away,

So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.

10He shall return no more to his house,

Neither shall his place know him any more.

11Therefore I will not refrain my mouth;

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

12Am I a sea, or a sea-monster,

That Thou settest a watch over me?

13When I say: ‘My bed shall comfort me,

My couch shall ease my complaint’;

14Then Thou scarest me with dreams,

And terrifiest me through visions;

15So that my soul chooseth strangling,

And death rather than these my bones.

16I loathe it; I shall not live alway;

Let me alone; for my days are vanity.

17What is man, that Thou shouldest magnify him,

And that Thou shouldest set Thy heart upon him,

18And that Thou shouldest remember him every morning,

And try him every moment?

19How long wilt Thou not look away from me,

Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

20If I have sinned, what do I unto Thee, O Thou watcher of men? Why hast Thou set me as a mark for Thee,

So that I am a burden to myself?

21And why dost Thou not pardon my transgression,

And take away mine iniquity?

For now shall I lie down in the dust;

And Thou wilt seek me, but I shall not be.