Job excuses his desire of death.

7:1 “Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth?
Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?

7:2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow,
as a hireling who looks for his wages,

7:3 so am I made to possess months of misery,
wearisome nights are appointed to me.

7:4 When I lie down, I say,

‘When shall I arise, and the night be gone?’

I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.

7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust.
My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.

7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
and are spent without hope.

7:7 Oh remember that my life is a breath.
My eye shall no more see good.

7:8 The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more.
Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.

7:9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away,
so he who goes down to Sheol shall come up no more.

7:10 He shall return no more to his house,
neither shall his place know him any more.

7:11 “Therefore I will not keep silent.
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit.
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

He complains of his own restlessness, and expostulates with God.

7:12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster,
that you put a guard over me?

7:13 When I say,

‘My bed shall comfort me.
My couch shall ease my complaint;’

7:14 then you scare me with dreams,
and terrify me through visions:

7:15 so that my soul chooses strangling,
death rather than my bones.

7:16 I loathe my life.
I don’t want to live forever.
Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

7:17 What is man, that you should magnify him,
that you should set your mind on him,

Psalm 8:4

7:18 that you should visit him every morning,
and test him every moment?

7:19 How long will you not look away from me,
nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

7:20 If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men?
Why have you set me as a mark for you,
so that I am a burden to myself?

7:21 Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity?
For now shall I lie down in the dust.
You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.”