Job 9:25-10:22
GOD’S WORD Translation
25 “My days go by more quickly than a runner.
They sprint away.
They don’t see anything good.
26 They pass by quickly like boats made from reeds,
like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
27 ⌞Even⌟ if I say, ‘I will forget my complaining;
I will change my expression and smile,’
28 I ⌞still⌟ dread everything I must suffer.
I know that you won’t declare me innocent.
29 I’ve already been found guilty.
Why should I work so hard for nothing?
30 If I wash myself with lye soap[a]
and cleanse my hands with bleach,
31 then you would plunge me into a muddy pit,
and my own clothes would find me disgusting.
32 A human like me cannot answer God,
‘Let’s take our case to court.’
33 There is no mediator between us
to put his hand on both of us.
34 God should take his rod away from me,
and he should not terrify me.[b]
35 Then I would speak and not be afraid of him.
But I know that I am not like that.
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.
2 I will say to God,
‘Don’t condemn me.
Let me know why you are quarreling with me.
3 What do you gain by mistreating me,
by rejecting the work of your hands
while you favor the plans of the wicked?
4 Do you actually have human eyes?
Do you see as a mortal sees?
5 Are your days like a mortal’s days?
Are your years like a human’s years?
6 Is that why you look for guilt in me
and search for sin in me?
7 You know I’m not guilty,
but there is no one to rescue me from your hands.
8 “ ‘Your hands formed me and made every part of me,
then you turned to destroy me.
9 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.
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.’ ”
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