²⁰ I have only a few days left, so leave me alone,
    that I may have a moment of comfort

14 “How frail is humanity!
    How short is life, how full of trouble!

¹³ Leave me alone so I can smile again
    before I am gone and exist no more.

¹⁵ Our days on earth are like grass;
    like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
¹⁶ The wind blows, and we are gone—
    as though we had never been here.

⁵ You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
    My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
    at best, each of us is but a breath.” Interlude

²⁵ “My life passes more swiftly than a runner.
    It flees away without a glimpse of happiness.
²⁶ It disappears like a swift papyrus boat,
    like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

⁹ For we were born but yesterday and know nothing.
    Our days on earth are as fleeting as a shadow.

¹⁶ I hate my life and don’t want to go on living.
    Oh, leave me alone for my few remaining days.

¹⁷ “What are people, that you should make so much of us,
    that you should think of us so often?
¹⁸ For you examine us every morning
    and test us every moment.
¹⁹ Why won’t you leave me alone,
    at least long enough for me to swallow!
²⁰ If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
    O watcher of all humanity?
Why make me your target?
    Am I a burden to you?^[a]
21 Why not just forgive my sin
    and take away my guilt?
For soon I will lie down in the dust and die.
    When you look for me, I will be gone.”