7 ‘Do not mortals have hard service on earth?
    Are not their days like those of hired labourers?
² Like a slave longing for the evening shadows,
    or a hired labourer waiting to be paid,
³ so I have been allotted months of futility,
    and nights of misery have been assigned to me.
⁴ When I lie down I think, “How long before I get up?”
    The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
⁵ My body is clothed with worms and scabs,
    my skin is broken and festering.

⁶ ‘My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
    and they come to an end without hope.
⁷ Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath;
    my eyes will never see happiness again.
⁸ The eye that now sees me will see me no longer;
    you will look for me, but I will be no more.
⁹ As a cloud vanishes and is gone,
    so one who goes down to the grave does not return.
¹⁰ He will never come to his house again;
    his place will know him no more.

¹¹ ‘Therefore I will not keep silent;
    I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit,
    I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
¹² Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep,
    that you put me under guard?
¹³ When I think my bed will comfort me
    and my couch will ease my complaint,
¹⁴ even then you frighten me with dreams
    and terrify me with visions,
¹⁵ so that I prefer strangling and death,
    rather than this body of mine.
¹⁶ I despise my life; I would not live for ever.
    Let me alone; my days have no meaning.

¹⁷ ‘What is mankind that you make so much of them,
    that you give them so much attention,
¹⁸ that you examine them every morning
    and test them every moment?
¹⁹ Will you never look away from me,
    or let me alone even for an instant?
²⁰ If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
    you who see everything we do?
Why have you made me your target?
    Have I become a burden to you?^[a]
21 Why do you not pardon my offences
    and forgive my sins?
For I shall soon lie down in the dust;
    you will search for me, but I shall be no more.’

² ‘How long will you say such things?
    Your words are a blustering wind.
³ Does God pervert justice?
    Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
⁴ When your children sinned against him,
    he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
⁵ But if you will seek God earnestly
    and plead with the Almighty,
⁶ if you are pure and upright,
    even now he will rouse himself on your behalf
    and restore you to your prosperous state.
⁷ Your beginnings will seem humble,
    so prosperous will your future be.

⁸ ‘Ask the former generations
    and find out what their ancestors learned,
⁹ for we were born only yesterday and know nothing,
    and our days on earth are but a shadow.
¹⁰ Will they not instruct you and tell you?
    Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
¹¹ Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh?
    Can reeds thrive without water?
¹² While still growing and uncut,
    they wither more quickly than grass.
¹³ Such is the destiny of all who forget God;
    so perishes the hope of the godless.
¹⁴ What they trust in is fragile^[a];
    what they rely on is a spider’s web.
¹⁵ They lean on the web, but it gives way;
    they cling to it, but it does not hold.
¹⁶ They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine,
    spreading its shoots over the garden;
¹⁷ it entwines its roots round a pile of rocks
    and looks for a place among the stones.
¹⁸ But when it is torn from its spot,
    that place disowns it and says, “I never saw you.”
¹⁹ Surely its life withers away,
    and^[b] from the soil other plants grow.

²⁰ ‘Surely God does not reject one who is blameless
    or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
²¹ He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
    and your lips with shouts of joy.
²² Your enemies will be clothed in shame,
    and the tents of the wicked will be no more.’

³ Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon,
    and when the moon is full, on the day of our Feast;
⁴ this is a decree for Israel,
    an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
⁵ When God went out against Egypt,
    he established it as a statute for Joseph.

I heard an unknown voice say:

⁶ ‘I removed the burden from their shoulders;
    their hands were set free from the basket.
⁷ In your distress you called and I rescued you,
    I answered you out of a thundercloud;
    I tested you at the waters of Meribah.^[c]
8 Hear me, my people, and I will warn you –
    if you would only listen to me, Israel!
⁹ You shall have no foreign god among you;
    you shall not worship any god other than me.
¹⁰ I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

¹¹ ‘But my people would not listen to me;
    Israel would not submit to me.
¹² So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
    to follow their own devices.

¹³ ‘If my people would only listen to me,
    if Israel would only follow my ways,
¹⁴ how quickly I would subdue their enemies
    and turn my hand against their foes!
¹⁵ Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
    and their punishment would last for ever.
¹⁶ But you would be fed with the finest of wheat;
    with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.’

² ‘How long will you^[a] defend the unjust
    and show partiality to the wicked?^[b]
3 Defend the weak and the fatherless;
    uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
⁴ Rescue the weak and the needy;
    deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

⁵ ‘The “gods” know nothing, they understand nothing.
    They walk about in darkness;
    all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

⁶ ‘I said, “You are ‘gods’;
    you are all sons of the Most High.”
⁷ But you will die like mere mortals;
    you will fall like every other ruler.’

⁸ Rise up, O God, judge the earth,
    for all the nations are your inheritance.