1 “How frail is humanity!
    How short is life, how full of trouble!
² We blossom like a flower and then wither.
    Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear.
³ Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature
    and demand an accounting from me?
⁴ Who can bring purity out of an impure person?
    No one!
⁵ You have decided the length of our lives.
    You know how many months we will live,
    and we are not given a minute longer.
⁶ So leave us alone and let us rest!
    We are like hired hands, so let us finish our work in peace.

⁷ “Even a tree has more hope!
    If it is cut down, it will sprout again
    and grow new branches.
⁸ Though its roots have grown old in the earth
    and its stump decays,
⁹ at the scent of water it will bud
    and sprout again like a new seedling.

¹⁰ “But when people die, their strength is gone.
    They breathe their last, and then where are they?
¹¹ As water evaporates from a lake
    and a river disappears in drought,
¹² people are laid to rest and do not rise again.
    Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up
    nor be roused from their sleep.

¹³ “I wish you would hide me in the grave^[a]
    and forget me there until your anger has passed.
    But mark your calendar to think of me again!
¹⁴ Can the dead live again?
    If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle,
    and I would eagerly await the release of death.
¹⁵ You would call and I would answer,
    and you would yearn for me, your handiwork.
¹⁶ For then you would guard my steps,
    instead of watching for my sins.
¹⁷ My sins would be sealed in a pouch,
    and you would cover my guilt.

¹⁸ “But instead, as mountains fall and crumble
    and as rocks fall from a cliff,
¹⁹ as water wears away the stones
    and floods wash away the soil,
    so you destroy people’s hope.
²⁰ You always overpower them, and they pass from the scene.
    You disfigure them in death and send them away.
²¹ They never know if their children grow up in honor
    or sink to insignificance.
²² They suffer painfully;
    their life is full of trouble.”

³ “Let the day of my birth be erased,
    and the night I was conceived.
⁴ Let that day be turned to darkness.
    Let it be lost even to God on high,
    and let no light shine on it.
⁵ Let the darkness and utter gloom claim that day for its own.
    Let a black cloud overshadow it,
    and let the darkness terrify it.
⁶ Let that night be blotted off the calendar,
    never again to be counted among the days of the year,
    never again to appear among the months.
⁷ Let that night be childless.
    Let it have no joy.
⁸ Let those who are experts at cursing—
    whose cursing could rouse Leviathan^[a]—
    curse that day.
⁹ Let its morning stars remain dark.
    Let it hope for light, but in vain;
    may it never see the morning light.
¹⁰ Curse that day for failing to shut my mother’s womb,
    for letting me be born to see all this trouble.

¹¹ “Why wasn’t I born dead?
    Why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?
¹² Why was I laid on my mother’s lap?
    Why did she nurse me at her breasts?
¹³ Had I died at birth, I would now be at peace.
    I would be asleep and at rest.
¹⁴ I would rest with the world’s kings and prime ministers,
    whose great buildings now lie in ruins.
¹⁵ I would rest with princes, rich in gold,
    whose palaces were filled with silver.
¹⁶ Why wasn’t I buried like a stillborn child,
    like a baby who never lives to see the light?
¹⁷ For in death the wicked cause no trouble,
    and the weary are at rest.
¹⁸ Even captives are at ease in death,
    with no guards to curse them.
¹⁹ Rich and poor are both there,
    and the slave is free from his master.

²⁰ “Oh, why give light to those in misery,
    and life to those who are bitter?
²¹ They long for death, and it won’t come.
    They search for death more eagerly than for hidden treasure.
²² They’re filled with joy when they finally die,
    and rejoice when they find the grave.
²³ Why is life given to those with no future,
    those God has surrounded with difficulties?
²⁴ I cannot eat for sighing;
    my groans pour out like water.
²⁵ What I always feared has happened to me.
    What I dreaded has come true.
²⁶ I have no peace, no quietness.
    I have no rest; only trouble comes.”