Job 10
1 “I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
I am weary of my life; I will give free expression to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.
I will say to God, 'Do not merely condemn me; show me why you accuse 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 to you that you should oppress me, to despise the work of your hands while you smile on the plans of the wicked?
4 Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as man sees?
Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see like a man sees?
5 Are Your days like those of a mortal, or Your years like those of a man,
Are your days like the days of mankind or your years like the years of people,
6 that You should seek my iniquity and search out my sin—
that you inquire after my iniquity and search after my sin,
7 though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
although you know I am not guilty and there is no one who can rescue me from your hand?
8 Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?
Your hands have framed and fashioned me together round about, yet you are destroying me.
9 Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?
Call to mind, I beg you, that you have fashioned me like clay; will you bring me into dust again?
10 Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese?
Have 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.
You have clothed me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and loving devotion, and Your care has preserved my spirit.
You have granted me life and covenant faithfulness; your help has guarded my spirit.
13 Yet You concealed these things in Your heart, and I know that this was in Your mind:
Yet these things you hid in your heart— I know that this is what you were thinking:
14 If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
that if I sinned, you would notice it; you would not acquit me of my 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.
If I have acted wickedly, woe to me; and even if I acted righteously, I could not lift up my head, since I am filled with disgrace— see my affliction!
16 Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.
If my head were lifted up, you would stalk me like a lion; and again you would show yourself with marvellous acts of power against me.
17 You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.
You bring new witnesses against me and increase your anger against me; you attack me with fresh armies.
18 Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!
Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up my spirit and that no eye had ever seen me.
19 If only I had never come to be, but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
I would have been as though I had never existed; I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort,
Are not my days only a few? Stop then, let me alone, so that I may have a little rest
21 before I go—never to return— to a land of darkness and gloom,
before I go from where I will not return, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death,
22 to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
the land that is as dark as midnight, the land of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is like midnight.'”
