Job Continues: Life Seems Futile 1“Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand? 2Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hireling he waits for his wages. 3So I am allotted months of futility, and nights of misery are appointed me. 4When I lie down I think: ‘When will I get up?’ But the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn. 5My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering. 6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope. 7Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness. 8The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more. 9As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up. 10He never returns to his house; his place remembers him no more. 11Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 12Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that You must keep me under guard? 13When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, 14then You frighten me with dreams 15so that I would prefer strangling and death 16I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath. 17What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart upon him, 18that You attend to him every morning, 19Will You never look away from me, or leave me alone to swallow my spittle? 20If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your target, so that I am a burden to Youa? 21Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; You will seek me, but I will be no more.” Footnotes: 20 a LXX; Hebrew to myself The Holy Bible, Majority Standard Bible, MSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee. This text of God's Word has been dedicated to the public domain. The MSB is the Byzantine Majority Text version of the BSB, including the BSB OT plus the NT translated according to the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Majority Text (byzantinetext.com). The MSB includes footnotes for translatable variants from the modern Critical Texts (CT) such as the Nestle Aland GNT, SBL GNT, and Editio Critica Maior. Major variants between the Majority Text (MT) and Textus Receptus (TR) are also noted. For a few passages not included in the MT, the TR translation is denoted with [[brackets]] and also footnoted. This text is a first version draft and is open to public comment and translation recommendations. please send all corrections and recommendations to the Berean Bible Translation Committee through the contact page at Berean.Bible. Bible Hub |