✧“Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand? ✧2Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hireling he waits for his wages. ✧3So I am allotted months of futility, and nights of misery are appointed me. ✧4When I lie down I think: ‘When will I get up?’ But the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn. ✧5My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering. ✧6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope. ✧7Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness. ✧8The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more. ✧9As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up. ✧10He never returns to his house; his place remembers him no more. ✧11Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. ✧12Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that You must keep me under guard? ✧13When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, ✧14then You frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, ✧15so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body. ✧16I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath. ✧17What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart upon him, ✧18that You attend to him every morning, and test him every moment? ✧19Will You never look away from me, or leave me alone to swallow my spittle? ✧20If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your target, so that I am a burden to You ? ✧21Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; You will seek me, but I will be no more.”