Chapter 10
1 " My soul is weary of my life . I will give free course to my complaint . I will speak in the bitterness of my soul .
2 I will tell God, ‘ Do not condemn me . Show me why you contend with me .
3 Is it good to you that you should oppress , that you should despise the work of your hands , and smile on the counsel of the wicked ?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh ? Or do you see as man sees ?
5 Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man ’s years ,
6 that you enquire after my iniquity , and search after my sin ?
7 Although you know that I am not wicked , there is no one who can deliver out of your hand .
8 "‘ Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether , yet you destroy me .
9 Remember , I beg you , that you have fashioned me as clay . Will you bring me into dust again ?
10 Haven’t you poured me out like milk , and curdled me like cheese ?
11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh , and knit me together with bones and sinews .
12 You have granted me life and loving kindness . Your visitation has preserved my spirit .
13 Yet you hid these things in your heart . I know that this is with you :
14 if I sin , then you mark me . You will not acquit me from my iniquity .
15 If I am wicked , woe to me . If I am righteous , I still will not lift up my head , being filled with disgrace , and conscious of my affliction .
16 If my head is held high , you hunt me like a lion . Again you show yourself powerful to me .
17 You renew your witnesses against me , and increase your indignation on me . Changes and warfare are with me .
18 "‘ Why , then , have you brought me out of the womb ? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me .
19 I should have been as though I had not been . I should have been carried from the womb to the grave .
20 Aren’t my days few ? Stop ! Leave me alone , that I may find a little comfort ,
21 before I go where I will not return from , to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death ;
22 the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death , without any order , where the light is as midnight.’"