| English Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1“I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. | 1"I am weary of my life; I will complain without restraint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. |
| 2I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me. | 2I will say to God, 'Do not condemn me; tell me why you are contending with me.' |
| 3Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked? | 3Is it good for you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked? |
| 4Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees? | 4"Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as a human being sees? |
| 5Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man’s years, | 5Are your days like the days of a mortal, or your years like the years of a mortal, |
| 6that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, | 6that you must search out my iniquity, and inquire about my sin, |
| 7although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand? | 7although you know that I am not guilty, and that there is no one who can deliver out of your hand? |
| 8Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether. | 8"Your hands have shaped me and made me, but now you destroy me completely. |
| 9Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust? | 9Remember that you have made me as with the clay; will you return me to dust? |
| 10Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? | 10Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese? |
| 11You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. | 11You clothed me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews. |
| 12You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit. | 12You gave me life and favor, and your intervention watched over my spirit. |
| 13Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose. | 13"But these things you have concealed in your heart; I know that this is with you: |
| 14If I sin, you watch me and do not acquit me of my iniquity. | 14If I sinned, then you would watch me and you would not acquit me of my iniquity. |
| 15If I am guilty, woe to me! If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction. | 15If I am guilty, woe to me, and if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head; I am full of shame, and satiated with my affliction. |
| 16And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion and again work wonders against me. | 16If I lift myself up, you hunt me as a fierce lion, and again you display your power against me. |
| 17You renew your witnesses against me and increase your vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me. | 17You bring new witnesses against me, and increase your anger against me; relief troops come against me. |
| 18“Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me | 18"Why then did you bring me out from the womb? I should have died and no eye would have seen me! |
| 19and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave. | 19I should have been as though I had never existed; I should have been carried right from the womb to the grave! |
| 20Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer | 20Are not my days few? Cease, then, and leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort, |
| 21before I go—and I shall not return— to the land of darkness and deep shadow, | 21before I depart, never to return, to the land of darkness and the deepest shadow, |
| 22the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness.” | 22to the land of utter darkness, like the deepest darkness, and the deepest shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness." |
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