1  “Has not man ^ra hard service on earth,

and are not his ^sdays like the days of a hired hand?

2  Like a slave who longs for ^tthe shadow,

and like ^ua hired hand who looks for his ^vwages,

3  so I am allotted months of ^wemptiness,

^xand nights of misery are apportioned to me.

4  ^yWhen I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’

But the night is long,

and I am full of tossing till the dawn.

5  My flesh is clothed with ^zworms and ^adirt;

my skin hardens, then ^bbreaks out afresh.

6  My days are ^cswifter than ^da weaver’s shuttle

and come to their end without hope.

7  “Remember that my life is a ^ebreath;

my eye will never again see good.

8  ^fThe eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;

while your eyes are on me, ^gI shall be gone.

9  As ^hthe cloud fades and vanishes,

so he who ⁱgoes down to Sheol does not come up;

10  he ^jreturns no more to his house,

nor does his ^kplace know him anymore.

11  “Therefore I will not ^lrestrain my mouth;

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

I will ^mcomplain in ⁿthe bitterness of my soul.

12  Am I the sea, or ^oa sea monster,

that you set a guard over me?

13  ^pWhen I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,

my couch will ease my complaint,’

14  then you scare me with dreams

and terrify me with visions,

15  so that I would choose strangling

and death rather than my ^qbones.

16  I ^rloathe my life; I would not live forever.

^sLeave me alone, for my days are ^ta breath.

17  ^uWhat is man, that you make so much of him,

and that you set your heart on him,

18  ^vvisit him every morning

and ^wtest him every moment?

19  How long will you not ^xlook away from me,

nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?

20  If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?

Why have you made me ^yyour mark?

Why have I become a burden to you?

21  Why do you not pardon my transgression

and take away my iniquity?

For now I shall lie in ^zthe earth;

you will ^aseek me, ^bbut I shall not be.”

2  “How long will you say these things,

and the words of your mouth be a ^dgreat wind?

3  ^eDoes God pervert justice?

Or does the Almighty pervert the right?

4  If your ^fchildren have sinned against him,

he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.

5  If you will seek God

and ^gplead with the Almighty for mercy,

6  if you are pure and upright,

surely then he will ^hrouse himself for you

and ⁱrestore your rightful habitation.

7  And though your beginning was small,

^jyour latter days will be very great.

8  “For ^kinquire, please, of bygone ages,

and consider what ^lthe fathers have searched out.

9  For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,

for our days on earth are ^ma shadow.

10  Will they not teach you and tell you

and utter words out of their understanding?

11  “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?

Can reeds flourish where there is no water?

12  While yet in flower and not cut down,

they ⁿwither before any other plant.

13  Such are the paths of all who ^oforget God;

^pthe hope of ^qthe godless shall perish.

14  His confidence is severed,

and his trust is ^ra spider’s web.¹

15  He leans against his ^shouse, but it does not stand;

he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.

16  He is a lush plant before the sun,

and his ^tshoots spread over his garden.

17  His roots entwine the stone heap;

he looks upon a house of stones.

18  If he is destroyed from his ^uplace,

then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never ^vseen you.’

19  Behold, this is the joy of his way,

and out of ^wthe soil others will spring.

20  “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,

nor take the hand of evildoers.

21  He will yet ^xfill your mouth with laughter,

and your lips with shouting.

22  Those who hate you will be ^yclothed with shame,

and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

2  “Truly I know that it is so:

But how can a man be ^zin the right before God?

3  If one wished to ^acontend with him,

one could not answer him once in a thousand times.

4  He is ^bwise in heart and mighty in strength

—who has ^chardened himself against him, and succeeded?—

5  he who removes mountains, and they know it not,

when he overturns them in his anger,

6  who ^dshakes the earth out of its place,

and ^eits pillars tremble;

7  who commands the sun, and it does not rise;

who seals up the stars;

8  who alone ^fstretched out the heavens

and trampled the waves of the sea;

9  who ^gmade ^hthe Bear and ⁱOrion,

the Pleiades ^jand the chambers of the south;

10  who does ^kgreat things beyond searching out,

and marvelous things beyond number.

11  Behold, he passes by me, and I ^lsee him not;

he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

12  Behold, he snatches away; ^mwho can turn him back?

ⁿWho will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

13  “God will not turn back his anger;

beneath him bowed the helpers of ^oRahab.

14  ^pHow then can I ^qanswer him,

choosing my words with him?

15  ^rThough I am in the right, I cannot answer him;

I must ^sappeal for mercy to my accuser.²

16  If I summoned him and he answered me,

I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.

17  For he crushes me with a tempest

and multiplies my wounds ^twithout cause;

18  he will not let me get my breath,

but fills me with bitterness.

19  If it is a contest of ^ustrength, behold, he is mighty!

If it is a matter of justice, who can ^vsummon him?³

20  Though I am in the right, ^wmy own mouth would condemn me;

though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

21  I am ^xblameless; I regard not myself;

I ^yloathe my life.

22  It is all one; therefore I say,

‘He ^zdestroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

23  When ^adisaster brings sudden death,

he mocks at the calamity⁴ of the innocent.

24  ^bThe earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

he ^ccovers the faces of its judges—

^dif it is not he, who then is it?

25  “My ^edays are swifter than ^fa runner;

they flee away; they see no good.

26  They go by like ^gskiffs of reed,

like ^han eagle swooping on the prey.

27  If I say, ⁱ‘I will forget my complaint,

I will put off my sad face, and ^jbe of good cheer,’

28  I become ^kafraid of all my suffering,

for I know you will not ^lhold me innocent.

29  I shall be ^mcondemned;

why then do I labor in vain?

30  If I wash myself with snow

and ⁿcleanse my hands with lye,

31  yet you will plunge me into a pit,

and my own clothes will ^oabhor me.

32  For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,

that we should ^pcome to trial together.

33  ^qThere is no⁵ arbiter between us,

who might lay his hand on us both.

34  ^rLet him take his ^srod away from me,

and let ^tnot dread of him terrify me.

35  Then I would speak without fear of him,

for I am not so in myself.

1  ^bShout for joy to God, all the earth;

2  sing the glory of his name;

^cgive to him glorious praise!

3  Say to God, ^d“How awesome are your deeds!

So great is your power that your enemies ^ecome cringing to you.

4  ^fAll the earth worships you

and sings praises to you;

they sing praises to your name.” Selah

5  ^gCome and see what God has done:

^dhe is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.

6  He ^hturned the sea into dry land;

they ⁱpassed through the river on foot.

There did we rejoice in him,

7  who rules by his might forever,

whose ^jeyes keep watch on the nations—

let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah

8  Bless our God, O peoples;

let the sound of his praise be heard,

9  who has kept our soul among the living

and ^khas not let our feet slip.

10  For you, O God, have ^ltested us;

you have tried us as silver is tried.

11  You brought us into ^mthe net;

you laid a crushing burden on our backs;

12  you let men ⁿride over our heads;

we went through fire and through ^owater;

yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.

13  I will come into your house with burnt offerings;

I will ^pperform my vows to you,

14  that which my lips uttered

and my mouth promised ^qwhen I was in trouble.

15  I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals,

with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;

I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah

16  ^rCome and hear, all you who fear God,

and I will tell what he has done for my soul.

17  I cried to him with my mouth,

and high praise was on¹ my tongue.²

18  If I had ^scherished iniquity in my heart,

^tthe Lord would not have listened.

19  But truly ^uGod has listened;

he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

20  Blessed be God,

because he has not rejected my prayer

or removed his steadfast love from me!