Job 10

1 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.

My soul is tired of life; I will let my sad thoughts go free in words; my soul will make a bitter outcry.

2 I will say vnto God, Condemne mee not: shew me, wherefore thou contendest with mee.

I will say to God, Do not put me down as a sinner; make clear to me what you have against me.

3 Thinkest thou it good to oppresse me, and to cast off the labour of thine handes, and to fauour the counsel of the wicked?

What profit is it to you to be cruel, to give up the work of your hands, looking kindly on the design of evil-doers?

4 Hast thou carnall eyes? or doest thou see as man seeth?

Have you eyes of flesh, or do you see as man sees?

5 Are thy dayes as mans dayes? or thy yeres, as the time of man,

Are your days as the days of man, or your years like his,

6 That thou inquirest of mine iniquitie, and searchest out my sinne?

That you take note of my sin, searching after my wrongdoing,

7 Thou knowest that I can not do wickedly: for none can deliuer me out of thine hand.

Though you see that I am not an evil-doer; and there is no one who is able to take a man out of your hands?

8 Thine handes haue made me, and fashioned mee wholy rounde about, and wilt thou destroy me?

Your hands made me, and I was formed by you, but then, changing your purpose, you gave me up to destruction.

9 Remember, I pray thee, that thou hast made me as the clay, and wilt thou bring me into dust againe?

O keep in mind that you made me out of earth; and will you send me back again to dust?

10 Hast thou not powred me out as milke? and turned me to cruds like cheese?

Was I not drained out like milk, becoming hard like cheese?

11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and ioyned me together with bones and sinewes.

By you I was clothed with skin and flesh, and joined together with bones and muscles.

12 Thou hast giuen me life, and grace: and thy visitation hath preserued my spirit.

You have been kind to me, and your grace has been with me, and your care has kept my spirit safe.

13 Though thou hast hid these things in thine heart, yet I knowe that it is so with thee.

But you kept these things in the secret of your heart; I am certain this was in your thoughts:

14 If I haue sinned, then thou wilt streightly looke vnto me, and wilt not holde mee giltlesse of mine iniquitie.

That, if I did wrong, you would take note of it, and would not make me clear from sin:

15 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.

That, if I was an evil-doer, the curse would come on me; and if I was upright, my head would not be lifted up, being full of shame and overcome with trouble.

16 But let it increase: hunt thou me as a lyon: returne and shew thy selfe marueilous vpon me.

And that if there was cause for pride, you would go after me like a lion; and again put out your wonders against me:

17 Thou renuest thy plagues against me, and thou increasest thy wrath against me: changes and armies of sorowes are against me.

That you would send new witnesses against me, increasing your wrath against me, and letting loose new armies on me.

18 Wherfore then hast thou brought me out of the wombe? Oh that I had perished, and that none eye had seene me!

Why then did you make me come out of my mother's body? It would have been better for me to have taken my last breath, and for no eye to have seen me,

19 And that I were as I had not bene, but brought from the wombe to the graue!

And for me to have been as if I had not been; to have been taken from my mother's body straight to my last resting-place.

20 Are not my dayes fewe? let him cease, and leaue off from me, that I may take a litle comfort,

Are not the days of my life small in number? Let your eyes be turned away from me, so that I may have a little pleasure,

21 Before I goe and shall not returne, euen to the land of darkenesse and shadow of death:

Before I go to the place from which I will not come back, to the land where all is dark and black,

22 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.

A land of thick dark, without order, where the very light is dark.