Job 7

₁‘People must work hard

while they are on earth.

Their days are as long as the days

of someone who works very hard.

₂They are like slaves

who wish that they could stop working

and go and rest in the shade.

They wait for their reward like someone

who has worked all day long.

₃This is how God has made me suffer

for months when I had nothing,

and for nights when I had trouble.

₄When I go to bed, I ask:

“When can I get up?”

But the night is long

and I keep on turning in my bed

until the sun comes up.

₅My body is full of worms and dust,

my skin is broken

and blood flows from my wounds.

₆My days go past quickly,

faster than it takes for one thread

to be woven on a loom.

My life is almost over,

and there is no hope for me.

₇Remember that my life is like the wind.

I will not see anything good again.

₈The eyes that see me now

will not see me again.

While you are looking at me,

I will suddenly disappear.’

₉‘A cloud gets smaller and then it disappears.

That is how someone

who is dying also disappears.

He goes to the grave and

he does not come back again.

₁₀He does not come back to his home.

The people from his town

do not remember him anymore.

₁₁That is why I can not

close my mouth and keep quiet.

I must speak because I am suffering.

I must complain,

because I am very unhappy.

₁₂I am not dangerous

as the sea or as a sea monster.

So, why do you guard me?

₁₃Sometimes I think

that it would be better for me

to go to my bed and lie down.

I think that I would not feel so bad,

₁₄but then You send me bad dreams

and make me afraid.

I fear when I see your visions when I dream.

₁₅It would be better for me

if someone killed me.

It would be better for me

to be dead than to live.

₁₆I hate living like this.

I do not want to keep on living.

Lord, please stay away from me.

My life is not as it should be.

₁₇Why are people important to You?

Why do You think about people?

₁₈Why do You look at what they do

and test them every day?

₁₉Why don't You look away from me?

Why don't You leave me

and give me time to swallow

the spit in my mouth?

₂₀If I have sinned,

what wrong have I done to You?

You are always looking at us.

Why did You shoot me with your arrows?

Why don't You want to carry me anymore?

₂₁Why don't You forgive my sins?

Why don't You forget what I have done wrong?

I will now go and lie down in the dust.

I will die and You will look for me,

but I will not be there anymore.’