1 Job Despairs of God’s Dealings “I am disgusted with my lifeandloathe it!I will give free expression to my complaint;I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me [and declare me guilty]!Show me why You contendandargueandstruggle with me.
3 Does it indeed seem right to You to oppress,To despiseandreject the work of Your hands,And to look with favor on the schemes of the wicked?
4 Do You have eyes of flesh?Do You see as a man sees?
5 Are Your days as the days of a mortal,Are Your years as man’s years,
6 That You seek my guiltAnd search for my sin?
7 Although You know that I am not guiltyorwicked,Yet there is no one who can rescue me from Your hand.
8 ‘Your hands have formed and made me altogether.Would You [turn around and] destroy me?
9 Remember now, that You have made me as clay;So will You turn me into dust again?
10 Have You not poured me out like milkAnd curdled me like cheese?
11 [You have] clothed me with skin and flesh,And knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and lovingkindness;And Your providence (divine care, supervision) has preserved my spirit.
13 Yet these [present evils] You have hidden in Your heart [since my creation]:I know that this was within You [in Your purpose and thought].
14 If I sin, then You would take noteandobserve me,And You would not acquit me of my guilt.
15 If I am wicked, woe to me [for judgment comes]!And if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head.For I am satedandfilled with disgrace and the sight of my misery.
16 Should I lift my head up, You would hunt me like a lion;And again You would show Your marvelous power against me.
17 You renew Your witnesses against meAnd increase Your indignationandanger toward me;Hardship after hardship is with me [attacking me time after time].
18 ‘Why then did You bring me out of the womb?Would that I had perished and no eye had seen me!
19 I should have been as though I had not existed;[I should have been] carried from the womb to the grave.’
20 Would He not let my few days alone,Withdraw from me that I may have a little cheer
21 Before I go—and I shall not return—To the land of darkness and the deep shadow [of death],
22 The [sunless] land of utter gloom as darknessitself,[The land] of the shadow of death, without order,And [where] it shines as [thick] darkness.”