Job 10:20

but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.

“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.”

Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and evil. They have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”

He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.

Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.

He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.

Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men!

For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.

Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.

Why did I come out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Most certainly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.

To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.

Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.

Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.”

even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life.

“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.

Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;

“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, and the grave is ready for me.

Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,

Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, but he would listen to me.

Behold, my terror will not make you afraid, neither will my pressure be heavy on you.

Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure. He is like the animals that perish.

My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.

He weakened my strength along the course. He shortened my days.

I said, “My God, don’t take me away in the middle of my days. Your years are throughout all generations.

So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.

Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?”

He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; he shall be with him according to the time of a hired servant.

Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’

What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?

so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.

(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)

He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

You will be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you will search, and will take your rest in safety.

withdraw your hand far from me, and don’t let your terror make me afraid.

though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.

Look away from him, that he may rest, until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day.

He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.

But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made all my company desolate.

Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.”

Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known it. This has rest rather than the other.

I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.”

Yahweh, you know. Remember me, visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors. You are patient, so don’t take me away. Know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.

I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.”

Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”

When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

He asked his father, “How long has it been since this has come to him?” He said, “From childhood.

I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” ’

Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.