As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.

He gave also their crops to the grasshopper
And the product of their labor to the locust.

Therefore He humbled their heart with labor;
They stumbled and there was none to help.

Let the creditor seize all that he has,
And let strangers plunder the product of his labor.

He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the labor of man,
So that he may bring forth food from the earth,

Man goes forth to his work
And to his labor until evening.

He gave them also the lands of the nations,
That they might take possession of the fruit of the peoples’ labor,

A Song of Ascents, of Solomon.
Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,
To eat the bread of painful labors;
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.