Job Continues: A Plea to God
“I aloathe my life;
I will give free utterance to my bcomplaint;
I will speak in cthe bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, Do not acondemn me;
let me know why you bcontend against me.
3 aDoes it seem good to you to oppress,
to despise bthe work of your hands
cand favor the designs of the wicked?
4 Have you aeyes of flesh?
bDo you see as man sees?
5 Are your days as the days of man,
or your ayears as a man’s years,
6 that you aseek out my iniquity
and search for my sin,
7 although you aknow that I am not guilty,
and there is bnone to deliver out of your hand?
8 aYour hands fashioned and made me,
and now you have destroyed me altogether.
9 Remember that you have made me like aclay;
and will you return me to the bdust?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and steadfast love,
and your care has preserved my spirit.
13 Yet these things you hid in your heart;
I know that athis was your purpose.
14 If I sin, you awatch me
and do not bacquit me of my iniquity.
15 aIf I am guilty, woe to me!
If I am bin the right, I cannot lift up my head,
for I am filled with disgrace
and clook on my affliction.
16 And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like aa lion
and again work bwonders against me.
17 You renew your awitnesses against me
and increase your vexation toward me;
you bbring fresh troops against me.
18 a“Why did you bring me out from the womb?
Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
19 aand were as though I had not been,
carried from the womb to the grave.
20 aAre not my days few?
bThen cease, and leave me alone, cthat I may find a little cheer
21 before I go—and aI shall not return—
to the land of bdarkness and cdeep shadow,
22 the land of gloom like thick darkness,
like deep shadow without any order,
where light is as thick darkness.”