Job 10
1 I hate my life! Let me speak freely about my complaints—I can't keep my bitterness to myself.
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 tell God, “Don't just condemn me—tell me what you have against me.
I will say to God, 'Do not merely condemn me; show me why you accuse 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?
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 human eyes? Do you see like human beings do?
Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see like a man sees?
5 Is your life as short as mortal beings? Are your years as brief as those of humanity,
Are your days like the days of mankind or your years like the years of people,
6 that you have to examine my wrongs and investigate my sins?
that you inquire after my iniquity and search after my sin,
7 Even though you know I'm not guilty, no one can save me from you.
although you know I am not guilty and there is no one who can rescue me from your hand?
8 You made me and shaped me with your own hands, and yet you destroy me.
Your hands have framed and fashioned me together round about, yet you are destroying me.
9 Remember that you shaped me like a piece of clay—are you now going to turn me back into dust?
Call to mind, I beg you, that you have fashioned me like clay; will you bring me into dust again?
10 You poured me out like milk, you curdled me like cheese.
Have you not poured me out like milk and curdled me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh; you wove my body together with bones and muscles.
You have 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.
You have granted me life and covenant faithfulness; your help has guarded my spirit.
13 But you kept these things hidden in your heart. I know your purpose was
Yet these things you hid in your heart— I know that this is what you were thinking:
14 to watch me, and if I sinned, then you would not forgive my wrongs.
that if I sinned, you would notice it; you would not acquit me of my 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 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 If I do hold my head high you hunt me down like a lion, showing how powerful you are in hurting 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 repeat your arguments against me, you pour out more and more of your anger against me, you send fresh armies against me.
You bring new witnesses against me and increase your anger against me; you attack me with fresh armies.
18 So why did you allow me to be born? I wish that I had died, and nobody had ever 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 It would have been better if I had never existed, taken straight 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 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 only a few? Stop then, let me alone, so that I may have a little rest
21 before I go to where I shall never return from, the land of darkness and the shadow of death—
before I go from where I will not return, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death,
22 the land of total darkness where death's shadow lies, a place of chaos where light itself is 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.'”
