Job 10
Living Bible
10 “I am weary of living. Let me complain freely. I will speak in my sorrow and bitterness. 2 I will say to God, ‘Don’t just condemn me—tell me why you are doing it. 3 Does it really seem right to you to oppress and despise me, a man you have made; and to send joy and prosperity to the wicked? 4-7 Are you unjust[a] like men? Is your life so short that you must hound me for sins you know full well I’ve not committed? Is it because you know no one can save me from your hand?
8 “‘You have made me, and yet you destroy me. 9 Oh, please remember that I’m made of dust—will you change me back again to dust so soon? 10 You have already poured me from bottle to bottle like milk and curdled me like cheese. 11 You gave me skin and flesh and knit together bones and sinews. 12 You gave me life and were so kind and loving to me, and I was preserved by your care.
13-14 “‘Yet all the time your real motive in making me was to destroy me if I sinned, and to refuse to forgive my iniquity. 15 Just the slightest wickedness, and I am done for. And if I’m good, that doesn’t count. I am filled with frustration. 16 If I start to get up off the ground, you leap upon me like a lion and quickly finish me off. 17 Again and again you witness against me and pour out an ever-increasing volume of wrath upon me and bring fresh armies against me.
18 “‘Why then did you even let me be born? Why didn’t you let me die at birth? 19 Then I would have been spared this miserable existence. I would have gone directly from the womb to the grave. 20-21 Can’t you see how little time I have left? Oh, leave me alone that I may have a little moment of comfort before I leave for the land of darkness and the shadow of death, never to return— 22 a land as dark as midnight, a land of the shadow of death where only confusion reigns and where the brightest light is dark as midnight.’”
Footnotes
- Job 10:4 Are you unjust, literally, “Have you the eyes of flesh?”
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.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.