7:1 �Isn�t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren�t his days like the days of a hired hand?
7:2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,
7:3 so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.
7:4 When I lie down, I say, �When shall I arise, and the night be gone?� I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.
7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver�s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
7:7 Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye shall no more see good.
7:8 The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.
7:9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol shall come up no more.
7:10 He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.
7:11 �Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
7:12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?
7:13 When I say, �My bed shall comfort me. My couch shall ease my complaint;�
7:14 then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions:
7:15 so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
7:16 I loathe my life. I don�t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
7:17 What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,
7:18 that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?
7:19 How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?
7:20 If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?
7:21 Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.�
