Job 10
Common English Bible
Complaint to God
10 I loathe my life; I will let loose my complaint;
I will speak out of my own bitterness.
2 I will say to God, Don’t declare me guilty;
tell me what you are accusing me of doing.
3 Does it seem good to you that you oppress me,
that you reject the work of your hands
and cause the purpose of sinners to shine?
4 Do you have physical eyes;
do you see like a human?
5 Are your days like those of a human,
your years like years of a human,
6 that you search for my wrongdoing
and seek my sin?
7 You know that I’m not guilty,
yet no one delivers me from your power.
Creator
8 Your hands fashioned and made me;
yet you want to destroy me utterly.
9 Remember that you made me from[a] clay,
and you will return me to dust.
10 Didn’t you pour me out like milk,
curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
wove me from bones and sinews.
12 Life and kindness you gave me,
and you oversaw and preserved my breath.
No hiding place
13 These things you hid in your heart;
I know this is the case with you.
14 If I sin and you observe me,
you won’t consider me innocent of wrongdoing.
15 If I were guilty, doom to me;
I’m innocent, but can’t lift my head,
full of shame and facing my misery.
16 I could boast like a lion, and you would hunt me;
you would do awesome things to me again.
17 You continue to send your witnesses against me
and increase your anger toward me,
a swift army against me.[b]
Death wish
18 Why did you let me emerge from the womb?
I wish I had died without any eye seeing me.
19 Then I would be just as if I hadn’t existed,
taken from the belly to the grave.
20 Aren’t my few days coming to an end?
Look away from me so I can brighten up a little
21 before I go and don’t return
to a land of deepest darkness,
22 a land whose light is like gloom,
utter darkness and confusion,
such that light shines like gloom.
Job 10
Christian Standard Bible
10 I am disgusted with my life.(A)
I will give vent to my complaint
and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God,
“Do not declare me guilty!
Let me know why you prosecute me.
3 Is it good for you to oppress,
to reject the work of your hands,(B)
and favor[a] the plans of the wicked?(C)
4 Do you have eyes of flesh,
or do you see as a human sees?
5 Are your days like those of a human,
or your years like those of a man,(D)
6 that you look for my iniquity(E)
and search for my sin,
7 even though you know that I am not wicked
and that there is no one who can rescue from your power?(F)
8 “Your hands shaped me and formed me.(G)
Will you now turn and destroy me?
9 Please remember that you formed me like clay.
Will you now return me to dust?(H)
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and wove me together with bones and tendons.(I)
12 You gave me life and faithful love,
and your care has guarded my life.
13 “Yet you concealed these thoughts in your heart;
I know that this was your hidden plan:[b]
14 if I sin, you would notice,[c]
and would not acquit me of my iniquity.(J)
15 If I am wicked, woe to me!
And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head.
I am filled with shame(K)
and have drunk deeply of[d] my affliction.(L)
16 If I am proud,[e] you hunt me like a lion
and again display your miraculous power against me.(M)
17 You produce new witnesses[f] against me
and multiply your anger toward me.
Hardships assault me, wave after wave.[g]
18 “Why did you bring me out of the womb?(N)
I should have died and never been seen.
19 I wish[h] I had never existed
but had been carried from the womb to the grave.(O)
20 Are my days not few? Stop it![i]
Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little
21 before I go to a land of darkness and gloom,(P)
never to return.
22 It is a land of blackness like the deepest darkness,
gloomy and chaotic,
where even the light is like[j] the darkness.”
Footnotes
Job 10
King James Version
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.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.