1Man certainly has an appointed [amount of] time upon earth, and his days are like the days of a hireling.
2As a servant earnestly desires the shade and as a hireling waits for [rest from] his work,
3so I am made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.
4When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise? I measure the night, 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 is broken and abominable.
6My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope.
7Remember thou that my life [is] wind and that my eyes shall not return to see good.
8The eyes of those that see me [now] shall not see me again; thine eyes [shall be] upon me, and I will cease to be.
9As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he that goes down to Sheol, who shall not come up again;
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.
12[Am] I a sea, or a dragon, that thou settest a watch over me?
13When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;
14then thou dost scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions.
15And my soul thought it better to be strangled [and desired] death more than my bones.
16I loathed [life]; I do not [desire] to live for ever; let me alone; for my days [are] vanity.
17What [is] man that thou should magnify him and that thou should set thine heart upon him
18and [that] thou should visit him every morning [and] try him every moment?
19For how long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone until I swallow down my spittle?
20If I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?
21And why dost thou not take away my rebellion and pass over my iniquity? For now I shall sleep in the dust; and if thou shalt seek me in the morning, I shall not be found.: