Job Cries Out to God
“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 cause 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,
6 That 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 deliverer from Your hand.
8 ‘aYour hands fashioned and made me altogether,
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,
11 Clothe 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:
14 If 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;
bHardship 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?
bWithdraw from me that I may have a little cheer
21 Before I go—aand I shall not return—
bTo the land of darkness and cshadow of death,
22 The land of utter gloom as the thick darkness itself,
Of the shadow of death, without order,
And which shines as the thick darkness.”