Job Continues: Life Seems Futile 1 UDB "People need to work hard on this earth like soldiers do; all during the time that we are alive, we need to work as hard as any hired worker. BSB BSB: “Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand?
2 UDB We are like slaves who keep wanting to be in the cool of evening, and we are like workers who keep waiting to be paid. BSB BSB: Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hireling he waits for his wages.
3 UDB God has given to me many months in which I think that it is useless to remain alive; he has assigned to me many nights during which I feel miserable. BSB BSB: So I am allotted months of futility, and nights of misery are appointed to me.
4 UDB When I lie down at night I say, 'How long will it be until I get up?' But the nights are long, and I toss on my bed until the dawn. BSB BSB: When I lie down I think: ‘When will I get up?’ But the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
5 UDB My body is covered with maggots and scabs; pus oozes out of my open sores. BSB BSB: My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering.
6 UDB My days pass as quickly as a weaver's shuttle; when one day ends, I never expect that things will be better the next day. BSB BSB: My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.
7 UDB God, do not forget that my life is as short as a single breath; I think that I will never again experience being happy. BSB BSB: Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.
8 UDB God, you see me now, but there will come a day when you will not see me anymore. You will search for me, but I will be gone because I will be dead. BSB BSB: The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.
9 UDB Like a cloud passes and disappears, people die and descend to the place where dead people are, and they do not return; BSB BSB: As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.
10 UDB they never return to their houses, and the people who are still alive do not remember them anymore. BSB BSB: He never returns to his house; his place remembers him no more.
11 UDB So I will not be silent; while I am suffering, I will speak; I will complain to God about what has happened to me because I am very angry. BSB BSB: Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12 UDB God, why do you watch closely what I am doing? Do you think that I am a dangerous sea monster? BSB BSB: Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that You must keep me under guard?
13 UDB When I lie down at night, I say to myself, 'I will go to sleep and stop suffering; my pain will be less while I am sleeping.' BSB BSB: When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,
14 UDB But then you give me dreams that cause me to be afraid; you give me visions that terrify me; BSB BSB: then You frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,
15 UDB these things make me wish that someone would strangle me to death, rather than for me to continue to be alive when I am only a bunch of bones. BSB BSB: so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.
16 UDB I detest continuing to be alive; I do not want to live for many more years. Allow me to be alone, because I will be alive for only a very short time. BSB BSB: I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
17 UDB We human beings are not very important; so why do you pay so much attention to us? BSB BSB: What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart upon him,
18 UDB You look at us every morning to see what we are doing, and you examine us every moment to see if we are doing what is right. BSB BSB: that You attend to him every morning, and test him every moment?
19 UDB When will you stop looking at me and leave me alone for a little time, long enough to swallow my own spit? BSB BSB: Will You never look away from me, or leave me alone to swallow my spittle?
20 UDB Why do you watch me constantly? If I sin, that certainly does not harm you! Why have you set me up like a target to shoot at? Do you consider me to be a heavy load that you are forced to carry? BSB BSB: If 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 You?
21 UDB If I have sinned, are you not able to forgive me for the wrong things that I have done? Soon I will lie in my grave; you will search for me, but you will not find me because I will be dead and gone." BSB BSB: Why 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.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.