Job 10
1 “I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
My soul is tired of life; I will let my sad thoughts go free in words; my soul will make a bitter outcry.
2 I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.
I will say to God, Do not put me down as a sinner; make clear to me what you have against me.
3 Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?
What profit is it to you to be cruel, to give up the work of your hands, looking kindly on the design of evil-doers?
4 Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as man sees?
Have you eyes of flesh, or do you see as man sees?
5 Are Your days like those of a mortal, or Your years like those of a man,
Are your days as the days of man, or your years like his,
6 that You should seek my iniquity and search out my sin—
That you take note of my sin, searching after my wrongdoing,
7 though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
Though you see that I am not an evil-doer; and there is no one who is able to take a man out of your hands?
8 Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?
Your hands made me, and I was formed by you, but then, changing your purpose, you gave me up to destruction.
9 Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?
O keep in mind that you made me out of earth; and will you send me back again to dust?
10 Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese?
Was I not drained out like milk, becoming hard like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
By you I was clothed with skin and flesh, and joined together with bones and muscles.
12 You have granted me life and loving devotion, and Your care has preserved my spirit.
You have been kind to me, and your grace has been with me, and your care has kept my spirit safe.
13 Yet You concealed these things in Your heart, and I know that this was in Your mind:
But you kept these things in the secret of your heart; I am certain this was in your thoughts:
14 If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
That, if I did wrong, you would take note of it, and would not make me clear from sin:
15 If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.
That, if I was an evil-doer, the curse would come on me; and if I was upright, my head would not be lifted up, being full of shame and overcome with trouble.
16 Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.
And that if there was cause for pride, you would go after me like a lion; and again put out your wonders against me:
17 You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.
That you would send new witnesses against me, increasing your wrath against me, and letting loose new armies on me.
18 Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!
Why then did you make me come out of my mother's body? It would have been better for me to have taken my last breath, and for no eye to have seen me,
19 If only I had never come to be, but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
And for me to have been as if I had not been; to have been taken from my mother's body straight to my last resting-place.
20 Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort,
Are not the days of my life small in number? Let your eyes be turned away from me, so that I may have a little pleasure,
21 before I go—never to return— to a land of darkness and gloom,
Before I go to the place from which I will not come back, to the land where all is dark and black,
22 to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
A land of thick dark, without order, where the very light is dark.
