• Job Despairs of God’s Dealings

  • 1 “I am disgusted with my own life; I will express my complaint freely; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
  • 2 “I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me; Let me know why You contend with me.
  • 3 ‘Is it right for You indeed to oppress, To reject the work of Your hands, And to look favorably on the plan of the wicked?
  • 4 ‘Do You have eyes of flesh? Or do You see as mankind sees?
  • 5 ‘Are Your days like the days of a mortal, Or Your years like a man’s year,
  • 6 That You should search for my guilt And carefully seek my sin?
  • 7 ‘According to Your knowledge I am indeed not guilty, Yet there is no one to save me from Your hand.
  • 8 ‘Your hands fashioned and made me altogether, Yet would You destroy me?
  • 9 ‘Remember that You have made me as clay; Yet would You turn me into dust again?
  • 10 ‘Did You not pour me out like milk, And curdle me like cheese,
  • 11 Clothe me with skin and flesh, And intertwine me with bones and tendons?
  • 12 ‘You have granted me life and goodness; And Your care has guarded my spirit.
  • 13 ‘Yet You have concealed these things in Your heart; I know that this is within You:
  • 14 If I have sinned, You will take note of me, And will not acquit me of my guilt.
  • 15 ‘If I am wicked, woe to me! But if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head. I am full of shame, and conscious of my misery.
  • 16 ‘And should my head be high, You would hunt me like a lion; And You would show Your power against me again.
  • 17 ‘You renew Your witnesses against me And increase Your anger toward me; Hardship after hardship is with me.
  • 18 ‘Why then did You bring me out of the womb? If only I had died and no eye had seen me!
  • 19 ‘I should have been as though I had not been, Brought from womb to tomb.’
  • 20 “Would He not leave my few days alone? Withdraw from me so that I may have a little cheerfulness
  • 21 Before I go—and I shall not return— To the land of darkness and deep shadow,
  • 22 The land of utter gloom like darkness itself, Of deep shadow without order, And it shines like darkness.”