| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 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 disgusted with my life. Let me complain freely. My bitter soul must complain. |
| 2I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me. | 2I will say to God, ‘Don’t simply condemn me— tell me the charge you are bringing against me. |
| 3Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked? | 3What do you gain by oppressing me? Why do you reject me, the work of your own hands, while smiling on the schemes of the wicked? |
| 4Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees? | 4Are your eyes like those of a human? Do you see things only as people see them? |
| 5Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man’s years, | 5Is your lifetime only as long as ours? Is your life so short |
| 6that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, | 6that you must quickly probe for my guilt and search for my sin? |
| 7although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand? | 7Although you know I am not guilty, no one can rescue me from your hands. |
| 8Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether. | 8“‘You formed me with your hands; you made me, yet now you completely destroy me. |
| 9Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust? | 9Remember that you made me from dust— will you turn me back to dust so soon? |
| 10Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? | 10You guided my conception and formed me in the womb. |
| 11You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. | 11You clothed me with skin and flesh, and you knit my bones and sinews together. |
| 12You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit. | 12You gave me life and showed me your unfailing love. My life was preserved by your care. |
| 13Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose. | 13“‘Yet your real motive— your true intent— |
| 14If I sin, you watch me and do not acquit me of my iniquity. | 14was to watch me, and if I sinned, you would not forgive my guilt. |
| 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, too bad for me; and even if I’m innocent, I can’t hold my head high, because I am filled with shame and misery. |
| 16And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion and again work wonders against me. | 16And if I hold my head high, you hunt me like a lion and display your awesome power against me. |
| 17You renew your witnesses against me and increase your vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me. | 17Again and again you witness against me. You pour out your growing anger on me and bring fresh armies 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 deliver me from my mother’s womb? Why didn’t you let me die at birth? |
| 19and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave. | 19It would be as though I had never existed, going directly from the womb to the grave. |
| 20Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer | 20I have only a few days left, so leave me alone, that I may have a moment of comfort |
| 21before I go—and I shall not return— to the land of darkness and deep shadow, | 21before I leave—never to return— for the land of darkness and utter gloom. |
| 22the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness.” | 22It is a land as dark as midnight, a land of gloom and confusion, where even the light is dark as midnight.’” |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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