Gióp 7

My days have no hope

¹Do not mortals have hard service on earth, \q and are their days not like the days of a hired worker? ²Like a slave who longs for the shade, \q and like a hired worker who waits for his pay, ³so I have been given months of emptiness as my share, \q and nights of misery have been assigned to me. ⁴When I lie down I think, “When will I get up?” \q But the night drags on, \q and I toss and turn until dawn. ⁵My body is covered with worms and crusts of dirt; \q my skin scabs over and then oozes again.^{a 6}My days go faster than a weaver’s shuttle; \q they come to an end without hope.^{b 7}Remember that my life is only a breath; \q my eyes will never again see anything good. ⁸The eye that sees me now will see me no more; \q your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone. ⁹As a cloud fades and is gone, \q so whoever goes down to Sheol does not come up again. ¹⁰He will never return to his home again, \q and his place will know him no more. ¹¹So I will not keep silent; \q I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit; \q I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. ¹²Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, \q that you put me under guard? ¹³When I think, “My bed will comfort me, \q my couch will ease my complaint,” ¹⁴then you frighten me with dreams \q and terrify me with visions, ¹⁵so that I would choose to be strangled, \q death rather than this body of mine. ¹⁶I loathe my life; I would not live forever. \q Let me alone, for my days are only a breath. ¹⁷What are mortals, that you make so much of them, \q that you pay them so much attention, ¹⁸that you inspect them every morning \q and test them every moment? ¹⁹How long before you look away from me \q and let me alone long enough to swallow my spit? ²⁰If I have sinned, what harm have I done to you, \q watcher of humankind? \q Why have you made me your target, \q so that I have become a burden to myself?^{c 21}Why do you not pardon my offense \q and take away my guilt? \q For soon I will lie down in the dust; \q you will look for me, but I will be gone.