New Living Translation
Job • Chapter 7
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“Is not all human life a struggle?<br>Our lives are like that of a hired hand,<br>
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like a worker who longs for the shade,<br>like a servant waiting to be paid.<br>
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I, too, have been assigned months of futility,<br>long and weary nights of misery.<br>
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Lying in bed, I think, ‘When will it be morning?’<br>But the night drags on, and I toss till dawn.<br>
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My body is covered with maggots and scabs.<br>My skin breaks open, oozing with pus.<br>
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“My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle.<br>They end without hope.<br>
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O God (Elohim), remember that my life is but a breath,<br>and I will never again feel happiness.<br>
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You see me now, but not for long.<br>You will look for me, but I will be gone.<br>
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Just as a cloud dissipates and vanishes,<br>those who die will not come back.<br>
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They are gone forever from their home —<br>never to be seen again.<br>
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“I cannot keep from speaking.<br>I must express my anguish.<br>My bitter soul must complain.<br>
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Am I a sea monster or a dragon<br>that you must place me under guard?<br>
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I think, ‘My bed will comfort me,<br>and sleep will ease my misery,’<br>
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but then you shatter me with dreams<br>and terrify me with visions.<br>
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I would rather be strangled —<br>rather die than suffer like this.<br>
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I hate my life and don’t want to go on living.<br>Oh, leave me alone for my few remaining days.<br>
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“What are people, that you should make so much of us,<br>that you should think of us so often?<br>
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For you examine us every morning<br>and test us every moment.<br>
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Why won’t you leave me alone,<br>at least long enough for me to swallow!<br>
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If I have sinned, what have I done to you,<br>O watcher of all humanity?<br>Why make me your target?<br>Am I a burden to you?<br>
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Why not just forgive my sin<br>and take away my guilt?<br>For soon I will lie down in the dust and die.<br>When you look for me, I will be gone.”<br>