< Job 10 >
1 “My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
My soule is cut off though I liue: I wil leaue my complaint vpon my selfe, and wil speake in the bitternesse of my soule.
2 I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me.
I will say vnto God, Condemne mee not: shew me, wherefore thou contendest with mee.
3 Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?
Thinkest thou it good to oppresse me, and to cast off the labour of thine handes, and to fauour the counsel of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?
Hast thou carnall eyes? or doest thou see as man seeth?
5 Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years,
Are thy dayes as mans dayes? or thy yeres, as the time of man,
6 that you enquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?
That thou inquirest of mine iniquitie, and searchest out my sinne?
7 Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.
Thou knowest that I can not do wickedly: for none can deliuer me out of thine hand.
8 “‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.
Thine handes haue made me, and fashioned mee wholy rounde about, and wilt thou destroy me?
9 Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?
Remember, I pray thee, that thou hast made me as the clay, and wilt thou bring me into dust againe?
10 Haven’t you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
Hast thou not powred me out as milke? and turned me to cruds like cheese?
11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and ioyned me together with bones and sinewes.
12 You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.
Thou hast giuen me life, and grace: and thy visitation hath preserued my spirit.
13 Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:
Though thou hast hid these things in thine heart, yet I knowe that it is so with thee.
14 if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.
If I haue sinned, then thou wilt streightly looke vnto me, and wilt not holde mee giltlesse of mine iniquitie.
15 If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still will not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.
If I haue done wickedly, wo vnto me: if I haue done righteously, I will not lift vp mine head, being full of confusion, because I see mine affliction.
16 If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.
But let it increase: hunt thou me as a lyon: returne and shew thy selfe marueilous vpon me.
17 You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.
Thou renuest thy plagues against me, and thou increasest thy wrath against me: changes and armies of sorowes are against me.
18 “‘Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.
Wherfore then hast thou brought me out of the wombe? Oh that I had perished, and that none eye had seene me!
19 I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
And that I were as I had not bene, but brought from the wombe to the graue!
20 Aren’t my days few? Stop! Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,
Are not my dayes fewe? let him cease, and leaue off from me, that I may take a litle comfort,
21 before I go where I will not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;
Before I goe and shall not returne, euen to the land of darkenesse and shadow of death:
22 the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”
Into a land, I say, darke as darknes it selfe, and into the shadow of death, where is none order, but the light is there as darkenesse.