Job Cries Out to God

1“My soul is loathed by my life;

I will abandon all restraint in myself to my complaint;

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2I will say to God, ‘Do not account me as wicked;

Let me know why You contend with me.

3Is it good to You that You oppress,

That You reject the labor of Your hands,

And [†]cause the counsel of the wicked to shine forth?

4Have You eyes of flesh?

Or do You see as a mortal man sees?

5Are Your days as the days of a mortal man,

Or Your years as man’s years,

6That You should seek for my guilt

And search after my sin?

7According to Your knowledge I am indeed not wicked,

Yet there is no [†]deliverer from Your hand.

8‘Your hands fashioned and made me [†]altogether,

And would You swallow me up?

9Remember now, that You have made me as clay;

And would You turn me into dust again?

10Did You not pour me out like milk

And curdle me like cheese,

11Clothe me with skin and flesh,

And knit me together with bones and sinews?

12You have made alongside me life and lovingkindness;

And Your care has kept my spirit.

13Yet these things You have concealed in Your heart;

I know that this is within You:

14If I sin, then You would take note of me

And would not acquit me of my guilt.

15If I am wicked, woe to me!

And if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head.

I am sated with disgrace—so see my misery!

16Should my head be set on high, You would hunt me like a lion;

And again You would show Your wonders against me.

17You renew Your witnesses against me

And increase Your vexation toward me;

[†]Hardship after hardship is with me.

18‘Why then have You brought me out of the womb?

Would that I had breathed my last and no eye had seen me!

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

Carried from womb to tomb.’

20Would He not cease for a few of my days?

[†]Withdraw from me that I may have a little cheer

21Before I go—and I shall not return—

To the land of darkness and shadow of death,

22The land of utter gloom as the thick darkness itself,

Of the shadow of death, without order,

And which shines as the thick darkness.”