< 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 hate my life! Let me speak freely about my complaints—I can't keep my bitterness to myself.
2 And I will say to the Lord, Do not teach me to be impious; and therefore have you thus judged me?
I will tell God, “Don't just condemn me—tell me what you have against 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.
Do you enjoy accusing me? Why do you reject me, someone you made with your own hands, and yet smile on the scheming of the wicked?
4 Or do you see as a mortal sees? or will you look as a man sees?
Do you have human eyes? Do you see like human beings do?
5 Or is your life human, or your years [the years] of a man,
Is your life as short as mortal beings? Are your years as brief as those of humanity,
6 that you have enquired into mine iniquity, and searched out my sins?
that you have to examine my wrongs and investigate my sins?
7 For you know that I have not committed iniquity: but who is he that can deliver out of your hands?
Even though you know I'm not guilty, no one can save me from you.
8 Your hands have formed me and made me; afterwards you did change [your mind], and strike me.
You made me and shaped me with your own hands, and yet you destroy me.
9 Remember that you have made me [as] clay, and you do turn me again to earth.
Remember that you shaped me like a piece of clay—are you now going to turn me back into dust?
10 Hast you not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
You poured me out like milk, you curdled 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; you wove my body together with bones and muscles.
12 And you did bestow upon me life and mercy, and your oversight has preserved my spirit.
You granted me life and showed me your kindness; you have taken great care of me.
13 Having these things in yourself, I know that you can do all things; for nothing is impossible with you.
But you kept these things hidden in your heart. I know your purpose was
14 And if I should sin, you watch me; and you have not cleared me from iniquity.
to watch me, and if I sinned, then you would not forgive my wrongs.
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'm guilty I'm in trouble, if I'm innocent I can't hold my head high because I'm totally disgraced as I look at my sufferings.
16 For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter; for again you have changed and are terribly destroying me;
If I do hold my head high you hunt me down like a lion, showing how powerful you are in hurting me.
17 renewing against me my torture: and you have dealt with me in great anger, and you have brought trials upon me.
You repeat your arguments against me, you pour out more and more of your anger against me, you send fresh armies against me.
18 Why then did you bring me out of the womb? and why did I not die, and no eye see me,
So why did you allow me to be born? I wish that I had died, and nobody had ever seen me!
19 and I become as if I had not been? for why was I not carried from the womb to the grave?
It would have been better if I had never existed, taken straight from the womb to the grave.
20 Is not the time of my life short? suffer me to rest a little,
I only have a few days left, so why don't you leave me alone so I can have a little peace
21 before I go whence I shall not return, to a land of darkness and gloominess;
before I go to where I shall never return from, 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.
the land of total darkness where death's shadow lies, a place of chaos where light itself is darkness.”

< Job 10 >