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.
“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 And I will say to the Lord, Do not teach me to be impious; and therefore have you thus judged me?
I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.
3 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.
Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?
4 Or do you see as a mortal sees? or will you look as a man sees?
Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as man sees?
5 Or is your life human, or your years [the years] of a man,
Are Your days like those of a mortal, or Your years like those of a man,
6 that you have enquired into mine iniquity, and searched out my sins?
that You should seek my iniquity and search out my sin—
7 For you know that I have not committed iniquity: but who is he that can deliver out of your hands?
though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
8 Your hands have formed me and made me; afterwards you did change [your mind], and strike me.
Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?
9 Remember that you have made me [as] clay, and you do turn me again to earth.
Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?
10 Hast you not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese?
11 And you did clothe me with skin and flesh, and frame me with bones and sinews.
You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 And you did bestow upon me life and mercy, and your oversight has preserved my spirit.
You have granted me life and loving devotion, and Your care has preserved my spirit.
13 Having these things in yourself, I know that you can do all things; for nothing is impossible with you.
Yet You concealed these things in Your heart, and I know that this was in Your mind:
14 And if I should sin, you watch me; and you have not cleared me from iniquity.
If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
15 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.
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.
16 For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter; for again you have changed and are terribly destroying me;
Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.
17 renewing against me my torture: and you have dealt with me in great anger, and you have brought trials upon me.
You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.
18 Why then did you bring me out of the womb? and why did I not die, and no eye see me,
Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, 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?
If only I had never come to be, but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Is not the time of my life short? suffer me to rest a little,
Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort,
21 before I go whence I shall not return, to a land of darkness and gloominess;
before I go—never to return— to a land of darkness and gloom,
22 to a land of perpetual darkness, where there is no light, neither [can any one] see the life of mortals.
to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
