| 1. | "I loathe my life; I will give free utterance 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 thou dost contend against me. |
| 3. | Does it seem good to thee to oppress, to despise the work of thy hands and favor the designs of the wicked? |
| 4. | Hast thou eyes of flesh? Dost thou see as man sees? |
| 5. | Are thy days as the days of man, or thy years as man's years, |
| 6. | that thou dost seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, |
| 7. | although thou knowest that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of thy hand? |
| 8. | Thy hands fashioned and made me; and now thou dost turn about and destroy me. |
| 9. | Remember that thou hast made me of clay; and wilt thou turn me to dust again? |
| 10. | Didst thou not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? |
| 11. | Thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. |
| 12. | Thou hast granted me life and steadfast love; and thy care has preserved my spirit. |
| 13. | Yet these things thou didst hide in thy heart; I know that this was thy purpose. |
| 14. | If I sin, thou dost mark me, and dost not acquit me of my iniquity. |
| 15. | If 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. |
| 16. | And if I lift myself up, thou dost hunt me like a lion, and again work wonders against me; |
| 17. | thou dost renew thy witnesses against me, and increase thy vexation toward me; thou dost bring fresh hosts against me. |
| 18. | "Why didst thou bring me forth from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me, |
| 19. | and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave. |
| 20. | Are not the days of my life few? Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort |
| 21. | before I go whence I shall not return, to the land of gloom and deep darkness, |
| 22. | the land of gloom and chaos, where light is as darkness." |
