Job 10

10I am tired of living.

Listen to my bitter complaint.

²Don’t condemn me, God.

Tell me! What is the charge against me?

³Is it right for you to be so cruel?

To despise what you yourself have made?

And then to smile on the schemes of wicked people?

⁴Do you see things as we do?

⁵Is your life as short as ours?

⁶Then why do you track down all my sins

and hunt down every fault I have?

⁷You know that I am not guilty,

that no one can save me from you.

⁸Your hands formed and shaped me,

and now^w those same hands destroy me.

⁹Remember that you made me from clay;^x

are you going to crush me back to dust?

¹⁰You gave my father strength to beget me;

you made me grow in my mother’s womb.

¹¹You formed my body with bones and sinews

and covered the bones with muscles and skin.

¹²You have given me life and constant love,

and your care has kept me alive.

¹³But now I know that all that time

you were secretly planning to harm me.

¹⁴You were watching to see if I would sin,

so that you could refuse to forgive me.

¹⁵As soon as I sin, I’m in trouble with you,

but when I do right, I get no credit.

I am miserable and covered with shame.^y

¹⁶If I have any success at all,

you hunt me down like a lion;

to hurt me you even work miracles.

¹⁷You always have some witness against me;

your anger towards me grows and grows;

you always plan some new attack.

¹⁸Why, God, did you let me be born?

I should have died before anyone saw me.

¹⁹To go from the womb straight to the grave

would have been as good as never existing.

²⁰Isn’t my life almost over? Leave me alone!

Let me enjoy the time I have left.

²¹I am going soon and will never come back—

going to a land that is dark and gloomy,

²²a land of darkness, shadows, and confusion,

where the light itself is darkness.