The Book of Job 7

Job Remonstrates with God

Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth?

Are not his days also like the days of a hireling?

As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow,

and as a hireling looketh for the reward of his work;

so am I made to possess months of vanity,

and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

When I lie down, I say,

When shall I arise, and the night be gone?

And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust;

my skin is broken, and become loathsome.

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,

and are spent without hope.

O remember that my life is wind:

mine eye shall no more see good.

The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more:

thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.

As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away;

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

He shall return no more to his house,

neither shall his place know him any more.

Therefore I will not refrain my mouth;

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

Am I a sea, or a whale,

that thou settest a watch over me?

When I say, My bed shall comfort me,

my couch shall ease my complaint;

then thou scarest me with dreams,

and terrifiest me through visions:

so that my soul chooseth strangling,

and death rather than my life.

I loathe it; I would not live alway:

let me alone; for my days are vanity.

What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?

and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? Ps. 8.4 ; 144.3

and that thou shouldest visit him every morning,

and try him every moment?

How long wilt thou not depart from me,

nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

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?

And why dost thou not pardon my transgression,

and take away mine iniquity?

For now shall I sleep in the dust;

and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.

Published by The American Bible Society

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