The human condition

¹Isn’t slavery everyone’s condition on earth,

our days like those of a hired worker?

³So I have inherited months of emptiness;

nights of toil have been measured out for me.

⁴If I lie down and think—When will I get up?—

night drags on, and restless thoughts fill me until dawn.

⁵My flesh is covered with worms and crusted earth;

my skin hardens and oozes.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle;

they reach their end without hope.

⁷Remember that my life is wind;

my eyes won’t see pleasure again.

⁸The eye that sees me now will no longer look on me;

your eyes will be on me, and I won’t exist.

⁹A cloud breaks apart and moves on—

like the one who descends to the grave and won’t rise,

Job wants to be left alone

¹¹But I won’t keep quiet;

I will speak in the adversity of my spirit,

groan in the bitterness of my life.

¹²Am I Sea or the Sea Monster[#7.12 Heb , a sea god; #7.12 Heb , a sea dragon]

that you place me under guard?

¹³If I say, “My couch will comfort me,”

my bed will diminish my murmuring.

¹⁴You scare me with dreams,

frighten me with visions.

¹⁵I would choose strangling

and death instead of my bones.

¹⁶I reject life; I don’t want to live long;[#7.16 Heb lacks]

leave me alone, for my days are empty.

A parody of Psalm 8

¹⁷What are human beings, that you exalt them,

that you take note of them,

¹⁸visit them each morning,

test them every moment?

¹⁹Why not look away from me;

let me alone until I swallow my spit?

²⁰If 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?

²¹Why 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.