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.
My soul doth loathe my life, —I let loose my complaint, I speak, in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, 'Do not merely condemn me; show me why you accuse 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 me, to despise the work of your hands while you smile on the plans 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? Do you see like a man sees?
Eyes of flesh, hast thou? or, as a mortal seeth, seest thou?
5 Are your days like the days of mankind or your years like the years of people,
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 I am not guilty and there is no one who can rescue me from 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 and fashioned me together round about, yet you are destroying me.
Thine own hands, shaped me, and made me, all in unison round about, and yet thou hast confounded me.
9 Call to mind, I beg you, that you have fashioned me like 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 you not 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 covenant faithfulness; your help has guarded my spirit.
Life and lovingkindness, thou didst bestow upon me, —and, thy watchful care, preserved my breath.
13 Yet these things you hid in your heart— I know that this is what you were thinking:
Yet, these things, thou didst hide in thy heart, I know that, this, hath been with thee!
14 that if I sinned, you would notice it; you would not acquit me of my iniquity.
If I have sinned, then couldst thou watch me, and, from mine iniquity, thou wouldst not acquit me:
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!
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 were lifted up, you would stalk me like a lion; and again you would show yourself with marvellous acts of power against 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 bring new witnesses against me and increase your anger against me; you attack me with fresh armies.
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 my spirit and that no eye had ever 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 would have been as though I had never existed; I would 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 only a few? Stop then, let me alone, so that I may have a little rest
Are not my days, few?—then forbear, and set me aside, that I may brighten up for 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, and not return, unto a land of darkness and death-shade:
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.'”
A land of obscurity, like thick darkness, of death-shade and disorder, and which shineth like thick darkness.
