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Job Says to God: I Hate My Life

10 “I hate my life.
    I will freely express my complaint.
    I will speak as bitterly as I feel.
I will say to Eloah,
    ‘Don’t condemn me.
        Let me know why you are quarreling with me.
            What do you gain by mistreating me,
                by rejecting the work of your hands
                    while you favor the plans of the wicked?
Do you actually have human eyes?
    Do you see as a mortal sees?
        Are your days like a mortal’s days?
        Are your years like a human’s years?
            Is that why you look for guilt in me
                and search for sin in me?
You know I’m not guilty,
    but there is no one to rescue me from your hands.

“‘Your hands formed me and made every part of me,
    then you turned to destroy me.[a]
Please remember that you made me out of clay
    and that you will return me to the dust again.
10 Didn’t you pour me out like milk
    and curdle me like cheese?
11 Didn’t you dress me in skin and flesh
    and weave me together with bones and tendons?
12 You gave me life and mercy.
    Your watchfulness has preserved my spirit.
13 But in your heart you hid these things.
    I know this is what you did.

14 “‘If I sin, you watch me
    and will not free me from my guilt.
15 How terrible it will be for me if I’m guilty!
    Even if I’m righteous, I dare not lift up my head.
    I am filled with disgrace
        while I look on my misery.
16 Like a proud, ferocious lion you hunt me down.
    You keep working your miracles against me.[b]
17 You keep finding new witnesses against me.
    You keep increasing your anger toward me.
        You keep bringing new armies against me.

18 “‘Why did you take me out of the womb?
    I wish I had breathed my last breath
        before anyone had laid eyes on me.
19 Then it would be as if I had never existed,
    as if I had been carried from the womb to the tomb.

20 “‘Isn’t my life short enough?
    So stop this, and leave me alone.
        Let me smile a little
21 before I go away
    to a land of darkness and gloom,
22 to a dismal land of long shadows and confusion
    where light is as bright as darkness.
    I’ll never return.’”

Footnotes

  1. Job 10:8 Hebrew meaning of this line uncertain.
  2. Job 10:16 Hebrew meaning of this verse uncertain.

Job: I Abhor My Life

10 “My soul loathes my life;
    I will freely give my complaint,
    I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
    show me why You contend with me.
Is it good for You that You should oppress,
    that You should despise the work of Your hands
    and smile on the counsel of the wicked?
Do You have eyes of flesh?
    Or do You see as man sees?
Are Your days as the days of man?
    Are Your years as the days of a mortal,
that You inquire after my iniquity
    and search after my sin?
You know that I am not wicked,
    and there is none who can deliver out of Your hand.

“Your hands have shaped me and made me completely,
    yet You destroy me.
Remember, I pray,
    that You have made me as the clay.
    And would You return me to dust?
10 Have You not poured me out as milk
    and curdled me like cheese?
11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh,
    and have knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and loyal love,
    and Your care has preserved my spirit.

13 “These things You have hid in Your heart.
    I know that this is with You.
14 If I have sinned, then You would watch me,
    and You would not acquit me from my iniquity.
15 If I am wicked, woe unto me;
    and if I am righteous, yet will I not lift up my head.
I am full of shame;
    look at my affliction!
16 For if my head is lifted up, You would hunt me like a lion,
    and again You show Yourself marvelous to me.
17 You renew Your witnesses against me
    and increase Your indignation upon me.
    Your troops come against me.

18 “Why then did You bring me forth out of the womb?
    Oh, that I had died, 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? Stop then,
    and leave me alone that I may cheer up a little,
21 before I go and do 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 thick darkness.”