1Is there not a hard service for man upon earth? And are not his days like the days of a hireling?
2As a servant pants for the shadow, and as a hireling looks for his wages,
3So I am made to inherit months of vanity, and nights of toil are appointed to me.
4If I lie down, then I say, "When shall I arise?" But the evening is drawn out, and I am sated with tossings until the dawn.
5My flesh (basar) is clothed with worm and clod of dust (aphar); my skin hardens and then dissolves.
6My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.
7Remember that my life (chai) is a spirit (ruach); my eye shall not return to see good.
8The eye of him who sees me shall not behold me; your eyes are upon me, but I am not.
9A cloud is consumed and goes away; so he who goes down to Sheol shall not come up.
10He shall not return again to his house, and his place shall not recognize him any more.
11Also I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the distress of my spirit (ruach); I will complain in the bitterness of my soul (nephesh).
12Am I a sea, or a great sea-creature (tannin), that you set a guard over me?
13When I say, "My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall bear part of my complaint,"
14Then you scare me with dreams, and through visions you terrify me;
15So that my soul (nephesh) chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
16I loathe my life; I shall not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
17What is man that you magnify him, and that you set your heart upon him,
18And that you visit 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?
20I have sinned; what do I do to you, O watcher of man (adam)? Why have you set me as a target for you, so that I am a burden to myself?
21And why do you not lift away my transgression and pass over my iniquity? For now I shall lie down in the dust (aphar); and you will seek me, but I shall not be.