| International Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 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. | 1"I am weary of my life; I will complain without restraint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. |
| 2I'll say to God, 'Don't condemn me! Let me know why you are fighting me. | 2I will say to God, 'Do not condemn me; tell me why you are contending with me.' |
| 3Does it delight you to oppress or despise what you have made, while you smile at the plans 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? |
| 4Do you have eyes made of flesh? Can you look at things as humans do? | 4"Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as a human being sees? |
| 5Can you live only as long as a human being? Or live the years of a mortal man? | 5Are your days like the days of a mortal, or your years like the years of a mortal, |
| 6"'For 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'm not guilty, there's no one to deliver me from you! | 7although you know that I am not guilty, and that there is no one who can deliver out of your hand? |
| 8Your hands formed and fashioned me, but then you have destroyed me all at once on all sides. | 8"Your hands have shaped me and made me, but now you destroy me completely. |
| 9"'Please remember that you've made me like clay and you'll return me to dust. | 9Remember that you have made me as with the clay; will you return me to dust? |
| 10Didn't you pour me out like milk and let me congeal like cheese? | 10Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese? |
| 11You covered me with skin and flesh, weaving me together with bones and sinews. | 11You clothed me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews. |
| 12You gave life and gracious love to me; your providential care has preserved my spirit. | 12You gave me life and favor, and your intervention watched over my spirit. |
| 13But you've hidden these things in your heart— I know 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 won't acquit me for my iniquity. | 14If I sinned, then you would watch me and you would not acquit me of 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! | 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. |
| 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. | 16If I lift myself up, you hunt me as a fierce lion, and again you display your power 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! | 17You bring new witnesses against me, and increase your anger against me; relief troops come against me. |
| 18So why did you bring me out from the womb? I wish I had died, before anyone 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! |
| 19as if I had never existed; 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! |
| 20My days are so few, aren't they? So leave me alone, then, so I can smile a little | 20Are not my days few? Cease, then, and leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort, |
| 21before I go, never to return, leaving for the land of deep darkness and shadow. | 21before I depart, never to return, to the land of darkness and the deepest shadow, |
| 22It's a gloomy land, like deepest darkness; where there's no order, and where even the brightness is like 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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