Job 7

1“Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand?

2Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hireling he waits for his wages.

3So I am allotted months of futility, and nights of misery are appointed to me.

4When I lie down I think: ‘When will I get up?’ But the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.

5My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering.

6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.

7Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.

8The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.

9As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.

10He never returns to his house; his place remembers him no more.

11Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

12Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that You must keep me under guard?

13When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,

14then You frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,

15so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.

16I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

17What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart upon him,

18that You attend to him every morning, and test him every moment?

19Will You never look away from me, or leave me alone to swallow my spittle?

20If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your target, so that I am a burden to You?

21Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; You will seek me, but I will be no more.”

1A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite. O LORD my God, I take refuge in You; save me and deliver me from all my pursuers,

2or they will shred my soul like a lion and tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.

3O LORD my God, if I have done this, if injustice is on my hands,

4if I have rewarded my ally with evil, if I have plundered my foe without cause,

5then may my enemy pursue me and overtake me; may he trample me to the ground and leave my honor in the dust. Selah

6Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; rise up against the fury of my enemies. Awake, my God, and ordain judgment.

7Let the assembled peoples gather around You; take Your seat over them on high.

8The LORD judges the peoples; vindicate me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and integrity.

9Put an end to the evil of the wicked, but establish the righteous, O righteous God who searches hearts and minds.

10My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

11God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation each day.

12If one does not repent, God will sharpen His sword; He has bent and strung His bow.

13He has prepared His deadly weapons; He ordains His arrows with fire.

14Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.

15He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.

16His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.

17I will thank the LORD for His righteousness and sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.