Job 10

CHAPTER 10

Job Cries Out to God

¹“^aMy soul is loathed by my life;

I will abandon all restraint in myself to ^bmy complaint;

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²“I will say to God, ‘^aDo not account me as wicked;

Let me know why You contend with me.

³‘Is it good to You that You ^aoppress,

That You reject ^bthe labor of Your hands,

And ¹cause ^cthe counsel of the wicked to shine forth?

⁴‘Have You eyes of flesh?

Or do You ^asee as a mortal man sees?

⁵‘Are Your days as the days of a mortal man,

Or ^aYour years as man’s years,

⁶That ^aYou should seek for my guilt

And search after my sin?

⁷‘According to Your knowledge ^aI am indeed not wicked,

Yet there is ^bno ¹deliverer from Your hand.

⁸‘^aYour hands fashioned and made me ¹altogether,

^bAnd would You swallow me up?

⁹‘Remember now, that You have made me as ^aclay;

And would You ^bturn me into dust again?

¹⁰‘Did 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?

¹²‘You have ^amade alongside me life and lovingkindness;

And Your care has kept my spirit.

¹³‘Yet ^athese things You have concealed in Your heart;

I know that this is within You:

¹⁴If I sin, then You would ^atake note of me

And ^bwould not acquit me of my guilt.

¹⁵‘If ^aI am wicked, woe to me!

And ^bif I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head.

I am sated with disgrace—so see my misery!

¹⁶‘Should my head be set on high, ^aYou would hunt me like a lion;

And again You would show Your ^bwonders against me.

¹⁷‘You renew ^aYour witnesses against me

And increase Your vexation toward me;

^1bHardship after hardship is with me.

¹⁸‘^aWhy then have You brought me out of the womb?

Would that I had breathed my last and no eye had seen me!

¹⁹‘I should have been as though I had not been,

Carried from womb to tomb.’

²⁰“Would He not cease ^afor a few of my days?

^1bWithdraw from me that I may have a little cheer

²¹Before I go—^aand I shall not return—

^bTo the land of darkness and ^cshadow of death,

²²The land of utter gloom as the thick darkness itself,

Of the shadow of death, without order,

And which shines as the thick darkness.”