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 soul doth loathe my life, —I let loose my complaint, I speak, in the bitterness of my soul.

2 I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me.

I say unto GOD, Do not hold me guilty, Let me know, on what account thou contendest with me!

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?

Is it seemly in thee, that thou shouldst oppress? that thou shouldst despise the labour of thine own hand, when, upon the counsel of the lawless, thou hast shone?

4 Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?

Eyes of flesh, hast thou? or, as a mortal seeth, seest thou?

5 Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years,

As the days of a mortal, are thy days? or, thy years, as the days of a man?

6 that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?

That thou shouldst seek for mine iniquity, and, for my sin, shouldst make search:

7 Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.

Though it is, within thine own knowledge, that I would not be lawless, and, none, out of thy hand, can deliver?

8 “‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.

Thine own hands, shaped me, and made me, all in unison round about, and yet thou hast confounded 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, as clay, thou didst make me, and, unto dust, thou wilt cause me to return.

10 Have not you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?

Didst thou not, like milk, pour me forth? and, as cheese, curdle me?

11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.

With skin and flesh, clothe me? and, with bones and sinews, interweave me?

12 You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.

Life and lovingkindness, thou didst bestow upon me, —and, thy watchful care, preserved my breath.

13 Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:

Yet, these things, thou didst hide in thy heart, I know that, this, hath been with thee!

14 if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.

If I have sinned, then couldst thou watch me, and, from mine iniquity, thou wouldst not acquit me:

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 have been lawless, alas for me! Or, if I am righteous, I will not lift up my head, Surfeited with shame, look thou then on my humiliation.

16 If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.

When it is lifted up, like a howling lion, thou dost hunt me, Then again thou dost shew thyself marvellous against me.

17 You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.

Thou renewest thy witnesses before me, and dost increase thy vexation with me, Relays—yea an army, is with 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.

Wherefore then, from the womb, didst thou bring me forth? I might have breathed my last, and, no eye, have seen me.

19 I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

As though I had not been, should I have become, —from the womb to the grave, might I have been borne.

20 Are not my days few? Stop! Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,

Are not my days, few?—then forbear, and set me aside, that I may brighten up for a little;

21 before I go where I will not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

Before I go, and not return, unto a land of darkness and death-shade:

22 the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”

A land of obscurity, like thick darkness, of death-shade and disorder, and which shineth like thick darkness.