7 “How mankind must struggle. A man’s life is long and hard, like that of a slave. ² How he longs for the day to end. How he grinds on to the end of the week and his wages. ³ And so to me also have been allotted months of frustration, these long and weary nights. ⁴ When I go to bed I think, ‘Oh, that it were morning,’ and then I toss till dawn.

⁵ “My skin is filled with worms and blackness. My flesh breaks open, full of pus. ⁶ My life drags by—day after hopeless day. ⁷ My life is but a breath, and nothing good is left. ⁸ You see me now, but not for long. Soon you’ll look upon me dead. ⁹ As a cloud disperses and vanishes, so those who die shall go away forever— ¹⁰ gone forever from their family and their home—never to be seen again. ¹¹ Ah, let me express my anguish. Let me be free to speak out of the bitterness of my soul.

¹² “O God, am I some monster that you never leave me alone? ^13-14 Even when I try to forget my misery in sleep, you terrify with nightmares. ¹⁵ I would rather die of strangulation than go on and on like this. ¹⁶ I hate my life. Oh, leave me alone for these few remaining days. ¹⁷ What is mere man that you should spend your time persecuting him? ¹⁸ Must you be his inquisitor every morning and test him every moment of the day? ¹⁹ Why won’t you leave me alone—even long enough to spit?

²⁰ “Has my sin harmed you, O God, watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your target, and made my life so heavy a burden to me? ²¹ Why not just pardon my sin and take it all away? For all too soon I’ll lie down in the dust and die, and when you look for me, I shall be gone.”