Job 10

Job 10

Job: I Loathe My Life

¹“I loathe my life;[#1 Kings 19.4; Job 7.11, 16]

I will give free utterance to my complaint;

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me;[#Job 9.29; Hos 4.1]

let me know why you contend against me.

³Does it seem good to you to oppress,[#Job 21.16; 22.18]

to despise the work of your hands

and favor the schemes of the wicked?

⁴Do you have eyes of flesh?[#1 Sam 16.7]

Do you see as humans see?

⁵Are your days like the days of mortals[#Ps 90.4; 2 Pet 3.8]

or your years like human years,

⁶that you seek out my iniquity

and search for my sin,

⁷although you know that I am not guilty,[#Job 9.12, 21]

and there is no one to deliver out of your hand?

⁸Your hands fashioned and made me,[#Ps 119.73]

and now you turn and destroy me.

⁹Remember that you fashioned me like clay,[#Gen 2.7; 3.19; Isa 64.8]

and will you turn me to dust again?

¹⁰Did you not pour me out like milk[#Ps 139.14–16]

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,[#Job 33.4]

and your care has preserved my spirit.

¹³Yet these things you hid in your heart;

I know that this was your purpose.

¹⁴If I sin, you watch me[#Job 9.28; 13.27]

and do not acquit me of my iniquity.

¹⁵If I am wicked, woe to me![#Job 9.12, 15; Ps 25.18; Isa 3.11]

If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head,

for I am filled with disgrace

and look upon my affliction.

¹⁶Bold as a lion you hunt me;[#Job 5.9; Isa 38.13; Lam 3.10]

you repeat your exploits against me.

¹⁷You renew your witnesses against me[#Job 7.1; 16.8]

and increase your vexation toward me;

you bring fresh troops against me.

¹⁸“ ‘Why did you bring me forth from the womb?[#Job 3.11]

Would that I had died before any eye had seen me

¹⁹and were as though I had not been,

carried from the womb to the grave.

²⁰Are not the days of my life few?[#Job 7.16, 19; 9.27; 14.1; #10.20 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb Are not my days few? Let him cease!]

Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort

²¹before I go, never to return,

to the land of gloom and deep darkness,

²²the land of gloom and chaos,[#10.22 Heb gloom as darkness, deep darkness]

where light is like darkness.’ ”