Job Despairs of God’s Dealings

¹ "I loathe my own life; I will give full vent to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

² "I will say to God, Do not condemn me; Let me know why You contend with me.

³ Is it right for You indeed to oppress, To reject the labor of Your hands, And to look favorably on the schemes of the wicked?

⁴ Have You eyes of flesh? Or do You see as a man sees?

⁵ Are Your days as the days of a mortal, Or Your years as man's years,

⁶ That You should seek for my guilt And search after my sin?

⁷ According to Your knowledge I am indeed not guilty, Yet there is no deliverance from Your hand.

⁸ Your hands fashioned and made me altogether, And would You destroy me?

⁹ Remember now, that You have made me as clay; And would You turn me into dust again?

¹⁰ Did You not pour me out like milk And curdle me like cheese;

¹¹ Clothe me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews?

¹² You have granted me life and lovingkindness; And Your care has preserved my spirit.

¹³ Yet these things You have concealed in Your heart; I know that this is within You:

¹⁴ If I sin, then You would take note of me, And would not acquit me of my guilt.

¹⁵ If I am wicked, woe to me! And if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head. [I am] sated with disgrace and conscious of my misery.

¹⁶ Should [my head] be lifted up, You would hunt me like a lion; And again You would show Your power against me.

¹⁷ You renew Your witnesses against me And increase Your anger toward me; Hardship after hardship is with me.

¹⁸ Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Would that I had died 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 let my few days alone? Withdraw from me that I may have a little cheer

²¹ Before I go-- and I shall not return-- To the land of darkness and deep shadow,

²² The land of utter gloom as darkness [itself], Of deep shadow without order, And which shines as the darkness."