¹“My soul is weary of my life .

I will give free course to my complaint .

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul .

²I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me .

Show me why you contend with me .

³Is it good to you that you should oppress ,

that you should despise the work of your hands ,

and smile on the counsel of the wicked ?

⁴Do you have eyes of flesh ?

Or do you see as man sees ?

⁵Are your days as the days of mortals,

or your years as man ’s years ,

⁶that you enquire after my iniquity ,

and search after my sin ?

⁷Although you know that I am not wicked ,

there is no one who can deliver out of your hand .

⁸“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether ,

yet you destroy me .

⁹Remember , I beg you , that you have fashioned me as clay .

Will you bring me into dust again ?

¹⁰Haven’t you poured me out like milk ,

and curdled me like cheese ?

¹¹You have clothed me with skin and flesh ,

and knit me together with bones and sinews .

¹²You have granted me life and loving kindness .

Your visitation has preserved my spirit .

¹³Yet you hid these things in your heart .

I know that this is with you :

¹⁴if I sin , then you mark me .

You will not acquit me from my iniquity .

¹⁵If I am wicked , woe to me .

If I am righteous , I still will not lift up my head ,

being filled with disgrace ,

and conscious of my affliction .

¹⁶If my head is held high , you hunt me like a lion .

Again you show yourself powerful to me .

¹⁷You renew your witnesses against me ,

and increase your indignation on me .

Changes and warfare are with me .

¹⁸“‘Why , then , have you brought me out of the womb ?

I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me .

¹⁹I should have been as though I had not been .

I should have been carried from the womb to the grave .

²⁰Aren’t my days few ?

Stop !

Leave me alone , that I may find a little comfort ,

²¹before I go where I will not return from ,

to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death ;

²²the land dark as midnight,

of the shadow of death ,

without any order ,

where the light is as midnight.’”