1“Is there not a set amount of time on earth allotted to man? Are his days not like the days of a hireling? 2As a slave seeks the evening shadows, and as a hired laborer waits to be paid: 3So am I have been allotted months of vanity and suffering. 4When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, and the night be gone?’ And I toss and turn until the dawning of the day. 5My body is covered with maggots and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and festering. 6My days fly faster than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope. 7Remember, oh God, that my life is a breath; my eye shall never again see happiness. 8The eye of him that has seen me shall see me no more; you may look for me, but I will be gone. 9As the cloud is dispersed and vanishes; so is he that goes down to the grave and shall come up no more. 10He shall not return to his house; his place shall not know him anymore.

11“Therefore 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 a sea monster, that You set a watch over me? 13When I say, ‘My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my misery’; 14Then You terrify me with dreams, and visions, 15So that my soul chooses suffocation and death, rather than my painful life. 16I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; for my days are vanity. 17What is man, that You should make so much of us, that You should give us so much attention? 18 What is man, that You should examine him every morning, and test him every moment? 19How long will You not look away from me, nor let me alone till I swallow my spittle? 20If I have sinned, what did I do to You, O You Preserver of men? Why have You set me as Your target, so that I am a burden to You? 21And why do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For I shall soon sleep in the dust; and You shall seek me in the morning, but I shall be no more.”