Job: My Suffering Is Comfortless

² Like a servant who earnestly desires the shade,
And like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages,

³ So I have been allotted months of futility,
And wearisome nights have been appointed to me.

⁴ When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise,
And the night be ended?’
For I have had my fill of tossing till dawn.

⁵ My flesh is caked with worms and dust,
My skin is cracked and breaks out afresh.

⁶ “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
And are spent without hope.

⁷ Oh, remember that my life is a breath!
My eye will never again see good.

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

⁹ As the cloud disappears and vanishes away,
So he who goes down to the grave does not come up.

¹⁰ He shall never return to his house,
Nor shall his place know him anymore.

¹¹ “ Therefore I will not restrain 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 sea serpent,
That You set a guard over me?

¹³ When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,
My couch will ease my complaint,’

¹⁴ Then You scare me with dreams
And terrify me with visions,

¹⁵ So that my soul chooses strangling
And death rather than my body.^[a]

¹⁶ I loathe my life;
I would not live forever.
Let me alone,
For my days are but a breath.

¹⁷ “What is man, that You should exalt him,
That You should set Your heart on him,

¹⁸ That You should visit him every morning,
And test him every moment?

¹⁹ How long?
Will You not look away from me,
And let me alone till I swallow my saliva?

²⁰ Have I sinned?
What have I done to You, O watcher of men?
Why have You set me as Your target,
So that I am a burden to myself?^[b]

²¹ Why then 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 no longer be.”