Job 7:11-8:7

New Living Translation

¹¹ “I cannot keep from speaking.
    I must express my anguish.
    My bitter soul must complain.
¹² Am I a sea monster or a dragon
    that you must place me under guard?
¹³ I think, ‘My bed will comfort me,
    and sleep will ease my misery,’
¹⁴ but then you shatter me with dreams
    and terrify me with visions.
¹⁵ I would rather be strangled—
    rather die than suffer like this.
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.”

² “How long will you go on like this?
    You sound like a blustering wind.
³ Does God twist justice?
    Does the Almighty twist what is right?
⁴ Your children must have sinned against him,
    so their punishment was well deserved.
⁵ But if you pray to God
    and seek the favor of the Almighty,
⁶ and if you are pure and live with integrity,
    he will surely rise up and restore your happy home.
⁷ And though you started with little,
    you will end with much.