Job Asks God to Acquit Him

1“I am disgusted with living,

so I’m going to talk about my complaint freely.

I’ll speak out from the bitterness of my soul.

2I’ll say to God,

‘Don’t condemn me!

Let me know why you are fighting me.

3Does it delight you to oppress

or despise what you have made,

while you smile at the plans of the wicked?a

4Do you have eyes made of flesh?

Can you look at things as humans do?

5Can you live only as long as a human being?

Or live the yearsb of a mortal man?

6“‘For you seek out my iniquity

and search for my sin.

7Although you know that I’m not guilty,

there’s no one to deliver me from you!c

8Your hands formed and fashioned me,

but then you have destroyed me all at once on all sides.

9“‘Please remember that you’ve made me like clay

and you’ll return me to dust.

10Didn’t you pour me out like milk

and let me congeal like cheese?

11You covered me with skin and flesh,

weaving me together with bones and sinews.

12You gave life and gracious love to me;

your providential care has preserved my spirit.

13But you’ve hidden these things in your heart—

I know this was your purpose:d

14If I sin, you watch me

and won’t acquit me for my iniquity.

15“‘Woe to me if I’m guilty!

If I’m innocent, I cannot lift my head,

because I am filled with disgrace.

Look at my affliction!

16But if I do lift up my head,

you will hunt me like a lion!

You will perform miracles in order to fight against me.

17“‘You have brought new witnesses against me,

you’re even more angry with me—

you’ve brought fresh troops to attack me!

18So why did you bring me out from the womb?

I wish I had died, before anyone had seen me,

19as if I had never existed;

carried from the womb to the grave.

20My days are so few, aren’t they?

So leave me alone, then,

so I can smile a little

21before I go, never to return,

leaving for the land of deep darkness and shadow.

22It’s a gloomy land, like deepest darkness;

where there’s no order,

and where evene the brightness is like darkness.’”