1<\/sup>The life of a man on the earth is a battle, and his days are like the days of a hired hand.<\/span> <\/p>\n 2<\/sup>Just as a servant desires the shade, and just as the hired hand looks forward to the end of his work,<\/span> <\/p>\n 3<\/sup>so also have I had empty months and have counted my burdensome nights.<\/span> <\/p>\n 4<\/sup>If I lie down to sleep, I will say, “When will I rise?” And next I will hope for the evening and will be filled with sorrows even until darkness.<\/span> <\/p>\n 5<\/sup>My flesh is clothed with particles of rottenness and filth; my skin is dried up and tightened.<\/span> <\/p>\n 6<\/sup>My days have passed by more quickly than threads are cut by a weaver, and they have been consumed without any hope.<\/span> <\/p>\n 7<\/sup>Remember that my life is wind, and my eye will not return to see good things.<\/span> <\/p>\n 8<\/sup>Neither will the sight of man gaze upon me; your eyes are upon me, and I will not endure.<\/span> <\/p>\n 9<\/sup>Just as a cloud is consumed and passes away, so he who descends to hell will not ascend.<\/span> <\/p>\n 10<\/sup>He will not return again to his house, nor will his own place know him any longer.<\/span> <\/p>\n 11<\/sup>And because of this, I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the affliction of my spirit. I will converse from the bitterness of my soul.<\/span> <\/p>\n 12<\/sup>Am I an ocean or a whale, that you have encircled me in a prison?<\/span> <\/p>\n 13<\/sup>If I say, “My bed will comfort me, and I will find rest, speaking with myself on my blanket,”<\/span> <\/p>\n 14<\/sup>then you will frighten me with dreams, and strike dread through visions,<\/span> <\/p>\n 15<\/sup>so that, because of these things, my soul would choose hanging, and my bones, death.<\/span> <\/p>\n 16<\/sup>I despair; by no means will I live any longer. Spare me, for my days are nothing.<\/span> <\/p>\n 17<\/sup>What is man, that you should praise him? Or why do you place your heart near him?<\/span> <\/p>\n 18<\/sup>You visit him at dawn, and you test him unexpectedly.<\/span> <\/p>\n 19<\/sup>How long will you not spare me, nor release me to ingest my saliva?<\/span> <\/p>\n 20<\/sup>I have sinned; what should I do for you, O keeper of men? Why have you set me against you, so that I have become burdensome even to myself?<\/span> <\/p>\n 21<\/sup>Why do you not steal away my sin, and why do you not sweep away my iniquity? Behold, now I will sleep in the dust, and if you seek me in the morning, I will not remain.<\/span> <\/p>\n