| 1: Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not
his days also like the days of an hireling? |
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| 2: As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling
looketh for the reward of his work: |
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| 3:
So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights
are appointed to me. |
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| 4: When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be
gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.
|
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| 5: My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is
broken, and become loathsome. |
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| 6: My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent
without hope. |
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| 7: O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see
good. |
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| 8: The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine
eyes are upon me, and I am not. |
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| 9: As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth
down to the grave shall come up no more. |
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| 10: He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place
know him any more. |
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| 11: Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the
anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
|
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| 12: Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?
|
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| 13: When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my
complaint; |
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| 14: Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through
visions: |
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| 15: So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my
life. |
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| 16: I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my
days are vanity. |
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| 17: What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou
shouldest set thine heart upon him? |
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| 18: And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him
every moment? |
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| 19: How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till
I swallow down my spittle? |
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| 20: I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of
men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden
to myself? |
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| 21: And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away
mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me
in the morning, but I shall not be. |
