Job 10

¹“I loathe my very life;

therefore I will give free rein to my complaint

and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.

²I say to God: Do not declare me guilty,

but tell me what charges you have against me.

³Does it please you to oppress me,

to spurn the work of your hands,

while you smile on the plans of the wicked?

⁴Do you have eyes of flesh?

Do you see as a mortal sees?

⁵Are your days like those of a mortal

or your years like those of a strong man,

⁶that you must search out my faults

and probe after my sin—

⁷though you know that I am not guilty

and that no one can rescue me from your hand?

⁸“Your hands shaped me and made me.

Will you now turn and destroy me?

⁹Remember that you molded me like clay.

Will you now turn me to dust again?

¹⁰Did you not pour me out like milk

and curdle me like cheese,

¹¹clothe me with skin and flesh

and knit me together with bones and sinews?

¹²You gave me life and showed me kindness,

and in your providence watched over my spirit.

¹³“But this is what you concealed in your heart,

and I know that this was in your mind:

¹⁴If I sinned, you would be watching me

and would not let my offense go unpunished.

¹⁵If I am guilty—woe to me!

Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head,

for I am full of shame

and drowned in my affliction.

¹⁶If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion

and again display your awesome power against me.

¹⁷You bring new witnesses against me

and increase your anger toward me;

your forces come against me wave upon wave.

¹⁸“Why then did you bring me out of the womb?

I wish I had died before any eye saw me.

¹⁹If only I had never come into being,

or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!

²⁰Are not my few days almost over?

Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy

²¹before I go to the place of no return,

to the land of gloom and utter darkness,

²²to the land of deepest night,

of utter darkness and disorder,

where even the light is like darkness.”