Book of Common Prayer

¹ O Eternal One, please do not scold me in Your anger;
    though Your wrath is just, do not correct me in Your fury.
² The arrows from Your bow have penetrated my flesh;
    Your hand has come down hard on me.

³ Because Your anger has infected the depths of my being and stolen my health,
    my flesh is ill.
My bones are no longer sound
    because of all the sins I have committed.
⁴ My guilt has covered me; it’s more than I can handle;
    this burden is too heavy for me to carry.

⁵ Now sores cover me—infected and putrid sores,
    because of all the foolish things I have done.
⁶ I am bent down, cowering in fear, prostrate on the ground;
    I spend the day in mourning, guilty tears stinging and burning my eyes.
⁷ My back aches. I’m full of fever;
    my body is no longer whole, no longer well.
⁸ I am completely numb, totally spent, hopelessly crushed.
    The agitation of my heart makes me groan.

⁹ O Lord, You know all my desires;
    nothing escapes You; You hear my every moan.
¹⁰ My heart pounds against my chest; my vigor is completely drained;
    my eyes were once bright, but now the brightness is all gone.
¹¹ Even my friends and loved ones turn away when they see this marked man;
    those closest to me are no longer close at all.

¹² Those who want me dead lay traps upon my path;
    those who desire my downfall threaten—my end is near—
    they spend their days plotting against me.

¹³ Like one who is deaf, my ears do not hear.
    Like one who is mute, my tongue cannot speak.
¹⁴ The truth is this: I am like one who cannot hear;
    I cannot even protest against them.

¹⁵ Still I wait expectantly for You, O Eternal One—
    knowing You will answer me in some way, O Lord, my True God.
¹⁶ I only asked, “When I stumble on the narrow path,
    don’t let them boast or celebrate my failure.”

¹⁷ I am prepared for what may come; my time must be short;
    my pain and suffering a constant companion.
¹⁸ I confess, “I have sinned,”
    and I regret the wrong I have done.
¹⁹ My enemies are alive and well,
    they are powerful and on the increase,
    and for no reason, they hate me.
²⁰ When I do good, my opponents reward me with evil;
    though I pursue what is right, they stand against me.

²¹ Eternal One, do not leave me to their mercy;
    my True God, don’t be far from me when they are near.
²² I need Your help now—not later.
    O Lord, be my Rescuer.

14 Job: Humankind, born of woman,
        has a few brief years with much suffering.
²     Like a short-lived bloom,
        he springs up only to wither;
        like the brief shade gained by a fast-moving cloud,
        he passes swiftly.
³     Lord, is this why You turn Your gaze on such a creature:
        to bring me,^[a] a mere human being, alongside You for judgment?
⁴     Who can take what is impure and defiled
        to fashion something pure and pristine?
        No one! We are, after all, so different in nature.
⁵     Since a person’s life is fixed,
        and You are the One who determines the number of his months,
    And You set a limit on the length of her life,
        and since they are incapable of exceeding Your decree,
⁶     The least You can do is turn Your gaze away from him until they pass,
        so that he can enjoy his day like a hired worker.

⁷     You know, at least there is a kind of hope for a tree:
        if it gets cut down, it may yet sprout again out of the roots.
        And very likely then, its tender shoots will not die.
⁸     Its roots may age deep under the ground,
        and the stump appear dead in the dry earth,
⁹     But even then it needs only the merest whiff of water
        to bud again and put forth shoots like a newly planted sapling.
¹⁰     But not so with humankind.
        The noblest of human beings dies and lies flat.
    Humans die, and where do they go?
¹¹         Just as water evaporates from the sea,
    And riverbeds go parched and dry,
¹²         so humankind lies down and does not rise again.
    Until the day when the skies are done away with,
        humankind will neither awaken nor rouse from slumber.

¹³     O that You would merely hide me in the land of the dead
        and keep me in secret till Your wrath is gone,
        until a time You decide when You might think upon me.
¹⁴     If one dies, can he live again?
        Through these days of toil and struggle,
        I will patiently wait until my situation changes.
¹⁵     You will call out, and I will answer You then;
        and You will long for me,
        the work of Your hands, again.
¹⁶     For then You would still count each of my steps
        but not focus on my faults.
¹⁷     My sins would be sealed up as in a bag,
        and my crimes You would carefully cover up.

¹⁸     And yet while every crack in me is closely watched,
        the mountain will slide and erode as the avalanche steals its cliffs away.
¹⁹     The water grinds at the surface of stones,
        and the floodwater^[b] steals the soil away.
    This is how You wreck the hope of humankind.
²⁰         You continually overwhelm him, and he dies;
        You alter his appearance and send him away.
²¹     If his children rise to honor, he does not know of it;
        if they sink to humiliation, he is unaware of it.
²²     He knows only this:
        His body feels agony and his soul grieves.