⁷ “Remember that my life is a breath;
    my eye will never again see good.
⁸ The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;
    while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.
⁹ As the cloud fades and vanishes,
    so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;
¹⁰ he returns no more to his house,
    nor does his place know him anymore.

¹¹ “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;
    I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
    I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
¹² Am I the sea, or a sea monster,
    that you set a guard over me?
¹³ When 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 bones.
¹⁶ I loathe my life; I would not live forever.
    Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
¹⁷ What is man, that you make so much of him,
    and that you set your heart on him,
¹⁸ visit him every morning
    and test him every moment?
¹⁹ How long will you not look 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 your 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 the earth;
    you will seek me, but I shall not be.”