| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 1“I am disgusted with my life. Let me complain freely. My bitter soul must complain. | 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, ‘Don’t simply condemn me— tell me the charge you are bringing against me. | 2I will say to God, 'Do not condemn me; tell me why you are contending with me.' |
| 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? | 3Is it good for you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked? |
| 4Are your eyes like those of a human? Do you see things only as people see them? | 4"Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as a human being sees? |
| 5Is your lifetime only as long as ours? Is your life so short | 5Are your days like the days of a mortal, or your years like the years of a mortal, |
| 6that you must quickly probe for my guilt and search for my sin? | 6that you must search out my iniquity, and inquire about my sin, |
| 7Although you know I am not guilty, no one can rescue me from your hands. | 7although you know that I am not guilty, and that there is no one who can deliver out of your hand? |
| 8“‘You formed me with your hands; you made me, yet now you completely destroy me. | 8"Your hands have shaped me and made me, but now you destroy me completely. |
| 9Remember that you made me from dust— will you turn me back to dust so soon? | 9Remember that you have made me as with the clay; will you return me to dust? |
| 10You guided my conception and formed me in the womb. | 10Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese? |
| 11You clothed me with skin and flesh, and you knit my bones and sinews together. | 11You clothed me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews. |
| 12You gave me life and showed me your unfailing love. My life was preserved by your care. | 12You gave me life and favor, and your intervention watched over my spirit. |
| 13“‘Yet your real motive— your true intent— | 13"But these things you have concealed in your heart; I know that this is with you: |
| 14was to watch me, and if I sinned, you would not forgive my guilt. | 14If I sinned, then you would watch me and you would not acquit me of my iniquity. |
| 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. | 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 if I hold my head high, you hunt me like a lion and display your awesome power against me. | 16If I lift myself up, you hunt me as a fierce lion, and again you display your power against me. |
| 17Again and again you witness against me. You pour out your growing anger on me and bring fresh armies against me. | 17You bring new witnesses against me, and increase your anger against me; relief troops come against me. |
| 18“‘Why, then, did you deliver me from my mother’s womb? Why didn’t you let me die at birth? | 18"Why then did you bring me out from the womb? I should have died and no eye would have seen me! |
| 19It would be as though I had never existed, going directly 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! |
| 20I have only a few days left, so leave me alone, that I may have a moment of comfort | 20Are not my days few? Cease, then, and leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort, |
| 21before I leave—never to return— for the land of darkness and utter gloom. | 21before I depart, never to return, to the land of darkness and the deepest shadow, |
| 22It is a land as dark as midnight, a land of gloom and confusion, where even the light is dark as midnight.’” | 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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