1‘I’m sick of living. So I’ll talk openly about my problems. I’ll speak out because my spirit is bitter.2I say to God, “Don’t find me guilty. Instead, tell me what charges you are bringing against me.3Does it make you happy when you crush me? Does it please you to turn your back on what you have made? While you do those things, you smile on the plans of sinful people!4You don’t have human eyes. You don’t see as people see.5Your days aren’t like the days of a mere human being. Your years aren’t even like the years of a strong man.6So you search for my mistakes. You look for my sin.7You already know I’m not guilty. No one can save me from your power.8‘ “Your hands shaped me and made me. So are you going to destroy me now?9Remember, you moulded me like clay. So are you going to turn me back into dust?10Didn’t you pour me out like milk? Didn’t you form me like cheese?11Didn’t you put skin and flesh on me? Didn’t you sew me together with bones and muscles?12You gave me life. You were kind to me. You took good care of me. You watched over me.13‘ “But here’s what you hid in your heart. Here’s what you had on your mind.14If I sinned, you would be watching me. You wouldn’t let me go without punishing me.15If I were guilty, how terrible that would be for me! Even if I haven’t sinned, I can’t be proud of what I’ve done. That’s because I’m so full of shame. I’m drowning in my suffering.16If I become proud, you hunt me down like a lion. You show your mighty power against me.17You bring new witnesses against me. You become more and more angry with me. You use your power against me again and again.18‘ “Why did you bring me out of my mother’s body? I wish I had died before anyone saw me.19I wish I’d never been born! I wish I’d been carried straight from my mother’s body to the grave!20Aren’t my few days almost over? Leave me so I can have a moment of joy.21Turn away before I go to the place I can’t return from. It’s the land of gloom and total darkness.22It’s the land of darkest night and total darkness and disorder. There even the light is like darkness.” ’
Job 10
English Standard Version
Job Continues: A Plea to God
1“I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. (Nu 11:15; 1Ki 19:4; Job 7:11; Job 7:16; Job 9:21; Job 21:4; Job 23:2)2I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me. (Job 9:3; Job 9:29)3Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked? (Job 9:24; Job 13:9; Job 14:15; Ps 89:38; Ps 138:8; Isa 64:8)4Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees? (1Sa 16:7; Joh 8:15)5Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man’s years, (Job 36:26; Ps 77:10; Ps 90:4; 2Pe 3:8)6that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, (Job 14:16)7although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand? (De 32:39; Job 2:3; Job 2:9; Isa 43:13)8Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether. (Ps 119:73)9Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust? (Ge 2:7; Ge 3:19; Job 4:17; Job 34:15; Ps 146:4; Ec 12:7)10Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?11You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.12You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.13Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose. (Job 23:14; Job 27:11)14If I sin, you watch me and do not acquit me of my iniquity. (Job 9:28; Job 13:27; Job 33:11; Ps 130:3)15If I am guilty, woe to me! If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction. (Job 9:15; Ps 25:18; Isa 3:11)16And were my head lifted up,[1] you would hunt me like a lion and again work wonders against me. (Job 5:9; Job 28:8; Isa 38:13; Ho 5:14; Ho 13:7)17You renew your witnesses against me and increase your vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me. (Ru 1:21; Job 16:8; Job 19:12)18“Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me (Job 3:3; Job 3:11)19and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave. (Ob 1:16)20Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer (Job 7:16; Job 9:27; Job 14:1; Ps 39:13)21before I go—and I shall not return— to the land of darkness and deep shadow, (2Sa 12:23; Job 3:5; Job 16:22; Job 30:26; Ps 88:12)22the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness.”