1 Man certainly has an appointed [amount of] time upon earth, and his days are like the days of a hireling.2 As a servant earnestly desires the shade and as a hireling waits for [rest from] his work,3 so I am made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.4 When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise? I measure the night, and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken and abominable.6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope.7 Remember thou that my life [is] wind and that my eyes shall not return to see good.8 The eyes of those that see me [now] shall not see me again; thine eyes [shall be] upon me, and I will cease to be.9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he that goes down to Sheol, who shall not come up again;10 he shall return no more to his house; neither shall his place know him any more.11 Therefore, I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.12 [Am] I a sea, or a dragon, that thou settest a watch over me?13 When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;14 then thou dost scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions.15 And my soul thought it better to be strangled [and desired] death more than my bones.16 I loathed [life]; I do not [desire] to live for ever; let me alone; for my days [are] vanity.17 What [is] man that thou should magnify him and that thou should set thine heart upon him18 and [that] thou should visit him every morning [and] try him every moment?19 For how long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone until I swallow down my spittle?20 If I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?21 And why dost thou not take away my rebellion and pass over my iniquity? For now I shall sleep in the dust; and if thou shalt seek me in the morning, I shall not be found.: