Job 10
1 “I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Weary in my soul, I will pour my words with groans upon him: I will speak being straitened in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.
And I will say to the Lord, Do not teach me to be impious; and therefore have you thus judged me?
3 Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?
Is it good before you if I be unrighteous? for you have disowned the work of your hands, and attended to the counsel of the ungodly.
4 Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as man sees?
Or do you see as a mortal sees? or will you look as a man sees?
5 Are Your days like those of a mortal, or Your years like those of a man,
Or is your life human, or your years [the years] of a man,
6 that You should seek my iniquity and search out my sin—
that you have enquired into mine iniquity, and searched out my sins?
7 though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
For you know that I have not committed iniquity: but who is he that can deliver out of your hands?
8 Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?
Your hands have formed me and made me; afterwards you did change [your mind], and strike me.
9 Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?
Remember that you have made me [as] clay, and you do turn me again to earth.
10 Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese?
Hast you not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
And you did clothe me with skin and flesh, and frame me with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and loving devotion, and Your care has preserved my spirit.
And you did bestow upon me life and mercy, and your oversight has preserved my spirit.
13 Yet You concealed these things in Your heart, and I know that this was in Your mind:
Having these things in yourself, I know that you can do all things; for nothing is impossible with you.
14 If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
And if I should sin, you watch me; and you have not cleared me from iniquity.
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.
Or if I should be ungodly, woe is me: and if I should be righteous, I can’t lift myself up, for I am full of dishonour.
16 Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.
For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter; for again you have changed and are terribly destroying me;
17 You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.
renewing against me my torture: and you have dealt with me in great anger, and you have brought trials upon 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 bring me out of the womb? and why did I not die, and no eye see me,
19 If only I had never come to be, but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
and I become as if I had not been? for why was I not carried from the womb to the grave?
20 Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort,
Is not the time of my life short? suffer me to rest a little,
21 before I go—never to return— to a land of darkness and gloom,
before I go whence I shall not return, to a land of darkness and gloominess;
22 to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
to a land of perpetual darkness, where there is no light, neither [can any one] see the life of mortals.
