New Living Translation NLT
Common English Bible CEB
1 “Is not all human life a struggle? Our lives are like that of a hired hand,
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Isn't slavery everyone's condition on earth, our days like those of a hired worker?
2 like a worker who longs for the shade, like a servant waiting to be paid.
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Like a slave we pant for a shadow, await our task like a hired worker. nights of toil have been measured out for me.
3 I, too, have been assigned months of futility, long and weary nights of misery.
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So I have inherited months of emptiness;
4 Lying in bed, I think, ‘When will it be morning?’ But the night drags on, and I toss till dawn.
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If I lie down and think—When will I get up?— night drags on, and restless thoughts fill me until dawn.
5 My body is covered with maggots and scabs. My skin breaks open, oozing with pus.
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My flesh is covered with worms and crusted earth; my skin hardens and oozes.
6 “My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle. They end without hope.
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My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle; they reach their end without hope.
7 O God, remember that my life is but a breath, and I will never again feel happiness.
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Remember that my life is wind; my eyes won't see pleasure again.
8 You see me now, but not for long. You will look for me, but I will be gone.
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The eye that sees me now will no longer look on me; your eyes will be on me, and I won't exist.
9 Just as a cloud dissipates and vanishes, those who die will not come back.
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A cloud breaks apart and moves on— like the one who descends to the grave and won't rise,
10 They are gone forever from their home— never to be seen again.
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won't return home again, won't be recognized in town anymore.
11 “I cannot keep from speaking. I must express my anguish. My bitter soul must complain.
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But I won't keep quiet; I will speak in the adversity of my spirit, groan in the bitterness of my life.
12 Am I a sea monster or a dragon that you must place me under guard?
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Am I Sea or the Sea Monster that you place me under guard?
13 I think, ‘My bed will comfort me, and sleep will ease my misery,’
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If I say, "My couch will comfort me," my bed will diminish my murmuring.
14 but then you shatter me with dreams and terrify me with visions.
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You scare me with dreams, frighten me with visions.
15 I would rather be strangled— rather die than suffer like this.
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I would choose strangling and death instead of my bones.
16 I hate my life and don’t want to go on living. Oh, leave me alone for my few remaining days.
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I reject life; I don't want to live long; leave me alone, for my days are empty.
17 “What are people, that you should make so much of us, that you should think of us so often?
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What are human beings, that you exalt them, that you take note of them,
18 For you examine us every morning and test us every moment.
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visit them each morning, test them every moment?
19 Why won’t you leave me alone, at least long enough for me to swallow!
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Why not look away from me; let me alone until I swallow my spit?
20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of all humanity? Why make me your target? Am I a burden to you?
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If I sinned, what did I do to you, guardian of people? Why have you made me your target so that I'm a burden to myself?
21 Why not just forgive my sin and take away my guilt? For soon I will lie down in the dust and die. When you look for me, I will be gone.”
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Why not forgive my sin, overlook my iniquity? Then I would lie down in the dust; you would search hard for me, and I would not exist.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible