Job 10

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Job Cries Out to God

“My soul is loathed by my life;

I will abandon all restraint in myself to my complaint;

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

I will say to God, ‘Do not account me as wicked;

Let me know why You contend with me.

Is it good to You that You oppress,

That You reject the labor of Your hands,

And cause the counsel of the wicked to shine forth?

Have You eyes of flesh?

Or do You see as a mortal man sees?

Are Your days as the days of a mortal man,

Or Your years as man’s years,

That You should seek for my guilt

And search after my sin?

According to Your knowledge I am indeed not wicked,

Yet there is no deliverer from Your hand.

‘Your hands fashioned and made me altogether,

And would You swallow me up?

Remember now, that You have made me as clay;

And would You turn me into dust again?

Did You not pour me out like milk

And curdle me like cheese,

Clothe me with skin and flesh,

And knit me together with bones and sinews?

You have made alongside me life and lovingkindness;

And Your care has kept my spirit.

Yet these things You have concealed in Your heart;

I know that this is within You:

If I sin, then You would take note of me

And would not acquit me of my guilt.

If I am wicked, woe to me!

And if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head.

I am sated with disgrace—so see my misery!

Should my head be set on high, You would hunt me like a lion;

And again You would show Your wonders against me.

You renew Your witnesses against me

And increase Your vexation toward me;

Hardship after hardship is with me.

‘Why then have You brought me out of the womb?

Would that I had breathed my last and no eye had seen me!

I should have been as though I had not been,

Carried from womb to tomb.’

Would He not cease for a few of my days?

Withdraw from me that I may have a little cheer

Before I go—and I shall not return—

To the land of darkness and shadow of death,

The land of utter gloom as the thick darkness itself,

Of the shadow of death, without order,

And which shines as the thick darkness.”

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