Job 10
1 I hate my life! Let me speak freely about my complaints—I can't keep my bitterness to myself.
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 I will tell God, “Don't just condemn me—tell me what you have against me.
I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou strivest with me.
3 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?
Doth it please thee to oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thy hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
4 Do you have human eyes? Do you see like human beings do?
Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?
5 Is your life as short as mortal beings? Are your years as brief as those of humanity,
Are thy days as the days of a mortal? are thy years as a man's days,
6 that you have to examine my wrongs and investigate my sins?
That thou searchest after mine iniquity, and inquirest into my sin;
7 Even though you know I'm not guilty, no one can save me from you.
Since thou knowest that I am not wicked, and that there is none that delivereth out of thy hand?
8 You made me and shaped me with your own hands, and yet you destroy me.
Thy hands have bound me together and made me as one, round about; yet dost thou swallow me up!
9 Remember that you shaped me like a piece of clay—are you now going to turn me back into dust?
Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as clay, and wilt bring me into dust again.
10 You poured me out like milk, you curdled me like cheese.
Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh; you wove my body together with bones and muscles.
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews;
12 You granted me life and showed me your kindness; you have taken great care of me.
Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy care hath preserved my spirit;
13 But you kept these things hidden in your heart. I know your purpose was
And these things didst thou hide in thy heart; I know that this was with thee.
14 to watch me, and if I sinned, then you would not forgive my wrongs.
If I sinned, thou wouldest mark me, and thou wouldest not acquit me of mine iniquity.
15 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.
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 If I do hold my head high you hunt me down like a lion, showing how powerful you are in hurting me.
And it increaseth: thou huntest me as a fierce lion; and ever again thou shewest thy marvellous power upon me.
17 You repeat your arguments against me, you pour out more and more of your anger against me, you send fresh armies against 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 So why did you allow me to be born? I wish that I had died, and nobody had ever seen me!
And wherefore didst thou bring me forth out of the womb? I had expired, and no eye had seen me.
19 It would have been better if I had never existed, taken straight 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 I only have a few days left, so why don't you leave me alone so I can have a little peace
Are not my days few? cease then and let me alone, that I may revive a little,
21 before I go to where I shall never return from, the land of darkness and the shadow of death—
Before I go, and never to return, — to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
22 the land of total darkness where death's shadow lies, a place of chaos where light itself is darkness.”
A land of gloom, as darkness itself; of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as thick darkness.
