Quotes About Existence

Why were there knees to receive me, and breasts that I should be nursed?

Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?

Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,

who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure,

who rejoice and greatly exult when they can find the grave?

Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!

“Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand?

My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering.

My days are swifter than a weaverís shuttle; they come to an end without hope.

Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.

The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.

As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.

Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that You must keep me under guard?

so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.

I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

Will You never look away from me, or leave me alone to swallow my spittle?

Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; You will seek me, but I will be no more.”

For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.

Then Job answered:

“Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?

If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

Were He to pass by me, I would not see Him; were He to move, I would not recognize Him.

If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice.