Job 10

¹My soul is weary of my life. I will release my words against myself. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²I will say to God: Do not be willing to condemn me. Reveal to me why you judge me this way.

³Does 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?

⁴Do you have bodily eyes? Or, just as man sees, will you see?

⁵Are your days just like the days of man, and are your years as the times of humans,

⁶so that you would inquire about my iniquity and examine my sin?

⁷And you know that I have done nothing impious, yet there is no one who can deliver from your hand.

⁸Your hands have made me and formed me all around, and, in this way, do you suddenly throw me away?

⁹Remember, I ask you, that you have fashioned me like clay, and you will reduce me to dust.

¹⁰Have you not extracted me like milk and curdled me like cheese?

¹¹You have clothed me with skin and flesh. You have put me together with bones and nerves.

¹²You have assigned to me life and mercy, and your visitation has preserved my spirit.

¹³Though you may conceal this in your heart, yet I know that you remember everything.

¹⁴If I have sinned, and you have spared me for an hour, why do you not endure me to be clean from my iniquity?

¹⁵And 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.

¹⁶And because of pride, you will seize me like a lioness, and having returned, you torment me to an extraordinary degree.

¹⁷You renew your testimony against me, and you multiply your wrath against me, and these punishments make war within me.

¹⁸Why did you lead me out of the womb? If only I had been consumed, so that no eye would ever see me!

¹⁹I should have been as if I had not been: transferred from the womb to the tomb.

²⁰Will not my few days be completed soon? Release me, therefore, so that I may lament my sorrows a little,

²¹before I depart and return no more to a land that is dark and covered with the fog of death,

²²a land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and nothing else but everlasting horror, dwells.

¹My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.

³Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?

⁴Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?

⁵Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man’s days,

⁶That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?

⁷Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

⁸Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.

⁹Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

¹⁰Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

¹¹Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.

¹²Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.

¹³And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee.

¹⁴If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.

¹⁵If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

¹⁶For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.

¹⁷Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.

¹⁸Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!

¹⁹I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

²⁰Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

²¹Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

²²A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.