Job 10

1 Weary in my soul, I will pour my words with groans upon him: I will speak being straitened in the bitterness of my soul.

My soul is weary of my life: I will give free course to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2 And I will say to the Lord, Do not teach me to be impious; and wherefore hast thou thus judged me?

I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou strivest with me.

3 Is it good before thee if I be unrighteous? for thou hast disowned the work of thy hands, and attended to the counsel of the ungodly.

Doth it please thee to oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thy hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?

4 Or dost thou see as a mortal sees? or wilt thou look as a man sees?

Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?

5 Or is thy life human, or thy years [the years] of a man,

Are thy days as the days of a mortal? are thy years as a man's days,

6 that thou hast enquired into mine iniquity, and searched out my sins?

That thou searchest after mine iniquity, and inquirest into my sin;

7 For thou knowest that I have not committed iniquity: but who is he that can deliver out of thy hands?

Since thou knowest that I am not wicked, and that there is none that delivereth out of thy hand?

8 Thy hands have formed me and made me; afterwards thou didst change [thy mind], and smite me.

Thy hands have bound me together and made me as one, round about; yet dost thou swallow me up!

9 Remember that thou hast made me [as] clay, and thou dost turn me again to earth.

Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as clay, and wilt bring me into dust again.

10 Hast thou not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?

Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

11 And thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh, and frame me with bones and sinews.

Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews;

12 And thou didst bestow upon me life and mercy, and thy oversight has preserved my spirit.

Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy care hath preserved my spirit;

13 Having these things in thyself, I know that thou canst do all things; for nothing is impossible with thee.

And these things didst thou hide in thy heart; I know that this was with thee.

14 And if I should sin, thou watchest me; and thou hast not cleared me from iniquity.

If I sinned, thou wouldest mark me, and thou wouldest not acquit me of mine iniquity.

15 Or if I should be ungodly, woe is me: and if I should be righteous, I cannot lift myself up, for I am full of dishonour.

If I were wicked, woe unto me! and righteous, I will not lift up my head, being [so] full of shame, and beholding mine affliction; —

16 For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter; for again thou hast changed and art terribly destroying me;

And it increaseth: thou huntest me as a fierce lion; and ever again thou shewest thy marvellous power upon me.

17 renewing against me my torture: and thou hast dealt with me in great anger, and thou hast brought trials upon me.

Thou renewest thy witnesses before me and increasest thy displeasure against me; successions [of evil] and a time of toil are with me.

18 Why then didst thou bring me out of the womb? and why did I not die, and no eye see me,

And wherefore didst thou bring me forth out of the womb? I had expired, and no eye had seen me.

19 and I become as if I had not been? for why was I not carried from the womb to the grave?

I should be as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

20 Is not the time of my life short? suffer me to rest a little,

Are not my days few? cease then and let me alone, that I may revive a little,

21 before I go whence I shall not return, to a land of darkness and gloominess;

Before I go, and never to return, — to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

22 to a land of perpetual darkness, where there is no light, neither [can any one] see the life of mortals.

A land of gloom, as darkness itself; of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as thick darkness.