Job 10

Chapter 10

¹“I loathe my life;

I will give free utterance to my complaint;

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²I will say to God, Do not condemn me;

let me know why thou dost contend against me.

³Does it seem good to thee to oppress,

to despise the work of thy hands

and favor the designs of the wicked?

⁴Hast thou eyes of flesh?

Dost thou see as man sees?

⁵Are thy days as the days of man,

or thy years as man’s years,

⁶that thou dost seek out my iniquity

and search for my sin,

⁷although thou knowest that I am not guilty,

and there is none to deliver out of thy hand?

⁸Thy hands fashioned and made me;

and now thou dost turn about and destroy me.^v

⁹Remember that thou hast made me of clay;^w

and wilt thou turn me to dust again?

¹⁰Didst thou not pour me out like milk

and curdle me like cheese?

¹¹Thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh,

and knit me together with bones and sinews.

¹²Thou hast granted me life and steadfast love;

and thy care has preserved my spirit.

¹³Yet these things thou didst hide in thy heart;

I know that this was thy purpose.

¹⁴If I sin, thou dost mark me,

and dost not acquit me of my iniquity.

¹⁵If I am wicked, woe to me!

If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head,

for I am filled with disgrace

and look upon my affliction.

¹⁶And if I lift myself up,^x thou dost hunt me like a lion,

and again work wonders against me;

¹⁷thou dost renew thy witnesses against me,

and increase thy vexation toward me;

thou dost bring fresh hosts against me.^y

¹⁸“Why didst thou bring me forth from the womb?

Would that I had died before any eye had seen me,

¹⁹and were as though I had not been,

carried from the womb to the grave.

²⁰Are not the days of my life few?^z

Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort^a

²¹before I go whence I shall not return,

to the land of gloom and deep darkness,

²²the land of gloom^b and chaos,

where light is as darkness.”