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.

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 tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with 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, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel 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? Or do you see as man sees?

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

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

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 that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of 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 me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.

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

9 Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as 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 Haven’t you 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 loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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 the spirit, and no eye had 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 should have been as though I had not been. I should 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 Aren’t my days few? Stop! Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,

Is not the time of my life short? suffer me to rest 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 whence I shall not return, to a land of darkness and gloominess;

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

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