Job 10

1 I am weary of my life; I will give free expression to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

Weary in my soul, I will pour my words with groans upon him: I will speak being straitened in the bitterness of my soul.

2 I will say to God, 'Do not merely condemn me; show me why you accuse me.

And I will say to the Lord, Do not teach me to be impious; and wherefore hast thou thus judged me?

3 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?

Is it good before thee if I be unrighteous? for thou hast disowned the work of thy hands, and attended to the counsel of the ungodly.

4 Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see like a man sees?

Or dost thou see as a mortal sees? or wilt thou look as a man sees?

5 Are your days like the days of mankind or your years like the years of people,

Or is thy life human, or thy years [the years] of a man,

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

that thou hast enquired into mine iniquity, and searched out my sins?

7 although you know I am not guilty and there is no one who can rescue me from your hand?

For thou knowest that I have not committed iniquity: but who is he that can deliver out of thy hands?

8 Your hands have framed and fashioned me together round about, yet you are destroying me.

Thy hands have formed me and made me; afterwards thou didst change [thy mind], and smite me.

9 Call to mind, I beg you, that you have fashioned me like clay; will you bring me into dust again?

Remember that thou hast made me [as] clay, and thou dost turn me again to earth.

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

Hast thou not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?

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

And thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh, and frame me with bones and sinews.

12 You have granted me life and covenant faithfulness; your help has guarded my spirit.

And thou didst bestow upon me life and mercy, and thy oversight has preserved my spirit.

13 Yet these things you hid in your heart— I know that this is what you were thinking:

Having these things in thyself, I know that thou canst do all things; for nothing is impossible with thee.

14 that if I sinned, you would notice it; you would not acquit me of my iniquity.

And if I should sin, thou watchest me; and thou hast not cleared me from iniquity.

15 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!

Or if I should be ungodly, woe is me: and if I should be righteous, I cannot lift myself up, for I am full of dishonour.

16 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.

For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter; for again thou hast changed and art terribly destroying me;

17 You bring new witnesses against me and increase your anger against me; you attack me with fresh armies.

renewing against me my torture: and thou hast dealt with me in great anger, and thou hast brought trials upon me.

18 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.

Why then didst thou bring me out of the womb? and why did I not die, and no eye see me,

19 I would have been as though I had never existed; I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.

and I become as if I had not been? for why was I not carried from the womb to the grave?

20 Are not my days only a few? Stop then, let me alone, so that I may have a little rest

Is not the time of my life short? suffer me to rest a little,

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

before I go whence I shall not return, to a land of darkness and gloominess;

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

to a land of perpetual darkness, where there is no light, neither [can any one] see the life of mortals.