Open English Translation JOB Chapter 7

7 Aren’t people expected to work on earth?

Aren’t a person’s days like the days of a hired labourer?

2 He longs for the shade just like a slave does.

He’s just like a hired man who waits eagerly for his wages.

3 So months of worthlessness have been alloted to me,

and they’ve appointed me to have many nights of trouble.

4 When I lie down I ask myself, ‘When can I get up?’

Thus evening drags on followed by restlessness until dawn.

5 My body is clothed with maggots and encrusted with dust.

≈My skin has become brittle and breaks apart.

6 In the past the days flew by faster than a weaver’s shuttle,

but now they’ve come to an end without any hope.

7 Remember that my life is just a puff of air.

My eyes will never see happiness again.

8 Your eyes won’t see me any more.

They’ll be on me but I’ll be gone.

9 Clouds just pop out of existence again and vanish.

Similarly, the person who goes down to She’ol doesn’t come back up again.

10 That person won’t return to their house again,

and before long their place won’t even know them again.

11 So I won’t restrain my mouth—

I’ll speak in the distress of my spirit.

I will complain with the bitterness of my soul.

12 Do you think that I’m the sea or the sea monster

that you will station a guard to watch me?

13 I thought that my bed would comfort me,

≈and that my couch would take away my complaints.

14 But then you frighten me with dreams,

≈and you terrify me with visions.

15 My inner self chooses strangling—

≈death over life in this body.

16 I REJECT—I won’t live to a VANISHING POINT.

Leave me alone because my days are just a puff of air.

17 What are humans that you make so much of them,

≈and that your mind thinks about them?

18 You visit them in the mornings,

and test them at various times.

19 Will you never look away from me?

Won’t you leave me alone long enough to swallow?

20 If I’ve sinned, what did I do to you, the watcher of people?

Why have you made me your target—

me who feels like I myself am now a burden?

21 Why won’t you forgive my fault

and take away my guilt?

For now I’ll lie down in the dust.

You’ll search for me but I’ll no longer exist.