Job 10

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

My soul is weary of my life. I will release my words against myself. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

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

I will say to God: Do not be willing to condemn me. Reveal to me why you judge me this way.

3 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?

Does it seem good to you, if you find fault with me and oppress me, the work of your own hands, and assist the counsel of the impious?

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

Do you have bodily eyes? Or, just as man sees, will you see?

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

Are your days just like the days of man, and are your years as the times of humans,

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

so that you would inquire about my iniquity and examine my sin?

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

And you know that I have done nothing impious, yet there is no one who can deliver from your hand.

8 Thine own hands, shaped me, and made me, all in unison round about, and yet thou hast confounded me.

Your hands have made me and formed me all around, and, in this way, do you suddenly throw me away?

9 Remember, I pray thee, that, as clay, thou didst make me, and, unto dust, thou wilt cause me to return.

Remember, I ask you, that you have fashioned me like clay, and you will reduce me to dust.

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

Have you not extracted me like milk and curdled me like cheese?

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

You have clothed me with skin and flesh. You have put me together with bones and nerves.

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

You have assigned to me life and mercy, and your visitation has preserved my spirit.

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

Though you may conceal this in your heart, yet I know that you remember everything.

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

If I have sinned, and you have spared me for an hour, why do you not endure me to be clean from my iniquity?

15 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.

And if I should be impious, woe to me, and if I should be just, I will not lift up my head, being drenched with affliction and misery.

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

And because of pride, you will seize me like a lioness, and having returned, you torment me to an extraordinary degree.

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

You renew your testimony against me, and you multiply your wrath against me, and these punishments make war within me.

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

Why did you lead me out of the womb? If only I had been consumed, so that no eye would ever see me!

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

I should have been as if I had not been: transferred from the womb to the tomb.

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

Will not my few days be completed soon? Release me, therefore, so that I may lament my sorrows a little,

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

before I depart and return no more to a land that is dark and covered with the fog of death,

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

a land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and nothing else but everlasting horror, dwells.