Job 7:3

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.

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.

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

“For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.”

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

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

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

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.

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.

For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

There was no end of all the people, even of all them over whom he was—yet those who come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Don’t trust in a neighbor. Don’t put confidence in a friend. With the woman lying in your embrace, be careful of the words of your mouth!

that no one would be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task.

Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

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

When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint;’

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

Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.

For Yahweh loves justice, and doesn’t forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.

Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you.

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

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

Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with makeup, you make yourself beautiful in vain. Your lovers despise you. They seek your life.

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret for your pride. My eye will weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because Yahweh’s flock has been taken captive.

“Go up to Lebanon, and cry. Lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers have been destroyed.

All your lovers have forgotten you. They don’t seek you. For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased.

It will happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” says Yahweh.

Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.”

“I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls.

“They have heard that I sigh. There is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble. They are glad that you have done it. You will bring the day that you have proclaimed, and they will be like me.

Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief. Don’t let the your eyes rest.

He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”

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.”

Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”

There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.

My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;

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.

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

In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him.

For he performs that which is appointed for me. Many such things are with him.

“Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;

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

For I am ready to fall. My pain is continually before me.

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

“Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.

When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.”

You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can’t speak.

For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh.

By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones.

All the relatives of the poor shun him: how much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with pleas, but they are gone.

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Then I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise?” Then I said in my heart that this also is vanity.

Yes, better than them both is him who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

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

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.

Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him.

All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.

The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He awakens morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

“They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh.

‘You said, “Woe is me now! For Yahweh has added sorrow to my pain! I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.” ’

She weeps bitterly in the night. Her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies.

Zion spreads out her hands. There is no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries. Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

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.

He has turned away my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.

therefore see, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those who you have loved, with all those who you have hated. I will even gather them against you on every side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.

She will follow after her lovers, but she won’t overtake them; and she will seek them, but won’t find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.’

Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound. I have made you desolate because of your sins.

What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?

Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!

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.

and, “a stumbling stone and a rock of offense.” For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed.

But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

These have one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast.

The ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute, will make her desolate, will strip her naked, will eat her flesh, and will burn her utterly with fire.