Job, 10

1. Since I have lost all taste for life, I shall give free rein to my complaining; I shall let my embittered soul speak out.

1. My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2. I shall say to God, 'Do not condemn me, tell me what your case is against me.

2. I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.

3. Is it right for you to attack me, in contempt for what you yourself have made, thus abetting the schemes of the wicked?

3. [Is it] good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?

4. Are your eyes mere human eyes, do you see as human beings see?

4. Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?

5. Are you mortal like human beings? do your years pass as human days pass?

5. [Are] thy days as the days of man? [are] thy years as man's days,

6. You, who enquire into my faults and investigate my sins,

6. That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?

7. you know very well that I am innocent, and that no one can rescue me from your grasp.

7. Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and [there is] none that can deliver out of thine hand.

8. Your hands having shaped and created me, now you change your mind and mean to destroy me!

8. Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.

9. Having made me, remember, as though of clay, now you mean to turn me back into dust!

9. Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

10. Did you not pour me out like milk, and then let me thicken like curds,

10. Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

11. clothe me with skin and flesh, and weave me of bone and sinew?

11. Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.

12. In your love you gave me life, and in your care watched over my every breath.

12. Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.

13. Yet, all the while, you had a secret plan: I know that you were biding your time

13. And these [things] hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this [is] with thee.

14. to see if I should sin and then not acquit me of my faults.

14. If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.

15. Woe to me, if I am guilty; even if I am upright, I dare not lift my head, so overwhelmed with shame and drunk with pain am I!

15. If I be wicked, woe unto me; and [if] I be righteous, [yet] will I not lift up my head. [I am] full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

16. Proud as a lion, you hunt me down, multiplying your exploits at my expense,

16. For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.

17. attacking me again and again, your fury against me ever increasing, your troops assailing me, wave after wave.

17. Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war [are] against me.

18. Why did you bring me out of the womb? I should have perished then, unseen by any eye,

18. Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!

19. a being that had never been, to be carried from womb to grave.

19. I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

20. The days of my life are few enough: turn your eyes away, leave me a little joy,

20. [Are] not my days few? cease [then, and] let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

21. before I go to the place of no return, to the land of darkness and shadow dark as death,

21. Before I go [whence] I shall not return, [even] to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

22. where dimness and disorder hold sway, and light itself is like dead of night.

22. A land of darkness, as darkness [itself; and] of the shadow of death, without any order, and [where] the light [is] as darkness.