ANONYMUS – Old Testament - Job

Job 7:1-7

Do not mortals have hard service on earth?

Are not their days like those of hired laborers?

Like a slave longing for the evening shadows,

or a hired laborer waiting to be paid,

so I have been allotted months of futility,

and nights of misery have been assigned to me.

When I lie down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’

The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.

My body is clothed with worms and scabs,

my skin is broken and festering.

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,

and they come to an end without hope.

Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath;

my eyes will never see happiness again.

Job 14, 1-16

Mortals, born of woman,

are of few days and full of trouble.

They spring up like flowers and wither away;

like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.

Do you fix your eye on them?

Will you bring them before you for judgment?

Who can bring what is pure from the impure?

No one!

A person’s days are determined;

you have decreed the number of his months

and have set limits he cannot exceed.

So look away from him and let him alone,

till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.

At least there is hope for a tree:

If it is cut down, it will sprout again,

and its new shoots will not fail.

Its roots may grow old in the ground

and its stump die in the soil,

yet at the scent of water it will bud

and put forth shoots like a plant.

But a man dies and is laid low;

he breathes his last and is no more.

As the water of a lake dries up

or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,

so he lies down and does not rise;

till the heavens are no more, people will not awake

or be roused from their sleep.

If only you would hide me in the grave

and conceal me till your anger has passed!

If only you would set me a time

and then remember me!

If someone dies, will they live again?

All the days of my hard service

I will wait for my renewal[b] to come.

You will call and I will answer you;

you will long for the creature your hands have made.

Surely then you will count my steps

but not keep track of my sin.

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