Job 7 · Clearspring

Job Continues: Life Seems Futile

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.”+

Job Continues: Life Seems Futile

Study Job 7