Job 17:7

You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.

“If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.

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

Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Yahweh sent an exceedingly strong west wind, which took up the locusts, and drove them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the borders of Egypt.

My heart throbs. My strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me.

Be merciful to me, Lord, for I call to you all day long.

I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land.

Therefore I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?

All this I have seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing.

Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity, for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun.

A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn’t know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him?

My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.

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.

I went out full, and Yahweh has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since Yahweh has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids.

My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

My eye wastes away because of grief. It grows old because of all my adversaries.

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

One generation goes, and another generation comes; but the earth remains forever.

I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.

For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?

But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow, because he doesn’t fear God.

Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me.

But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;

Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and Yahweh brought an east wind on the land all that day, and all night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.

Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look, and fail with longing for them all day long. There will be no power in your hand.

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.

Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.

When I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.

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

You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.

His flesh is so consumed away that it can’t be seen. His bones that were not seen stick out.

I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.

Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.

I am in pain and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long.

My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

If we have forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a strange god,

He chooses our inheritance for us, the glory of Jacob whom he loved.

Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice.

Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long, he attacks and oppresses me.

Princes shall come out of Egypt. Ethiopia shall hurry to stretch out her hands to God.

I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God.

Yahweh, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you.

My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you.

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

For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,

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

I fade away like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust.

For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

Also their love, their hatred, and their envy has perished long ago; neither do they any longer have a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.

This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.

The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyes fail, because there is no vegetation.

“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and I faint all day long.

“Let all their wickedness come before you. Do to them as you have done to me for all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim.

Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,

It shall be, when they ask you, ‘Why do you sigh?’ that you shall say, ‘Because of the news, for it comes! Every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh.’ ”

He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Jesus wept.

Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days.