10 My soul is weary of my life;
I will leave my complaint upon myself;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
² I will say unto God, Do not condemn me;
shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
³ Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress,
that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands,
and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
⁴ Hast thou eyes of flesh?
or seest thou as man seeth?
⁵ Are thy days as the days of man?
are thy years as man’s days,
⁶ that thou enquirest after mine iniquity,
and searchest after my sin?
⁷ Thou knowest that I am not wicked;
and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

⁸ Thine hands have made me
and fashioned me together round about;
yet thou dost destroy me.
⁹ Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay;
and wilt thou bring me into dust again?
¹⁰ Hast thou not poured me out as milk,
and curdled me like cheese?
¹¹ Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh,
and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
¹² Thou hast granted me life and favour,
and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.

¹³ And these things hast thou hid in thine heart:
I know that this is with thee.
¹⁴ If I sin, then thou markest me,
and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
¹⁵ If I be wicked, woe unto me;
and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head.
I am full of confusion;
therefore see thou mine affliction; ¹⁶ for it increaseth.
Thou huntest me as a fierce lion:
and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.
¹⁷ Thou renewest thy witnesses against me,
and increasest thine indignation upon me;
changes and war are against me.

¹⁸ Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb?
Oh that I had given up the ghost, 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 Are not my days few?
cease then, and let me alone,
that I may take comfort a little,
²¹ before I go whence I shall not return,
even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
²² a land of darkness, as darkness itself;
and of the shadow of death, without any order,
and where the light is as darkness.