Job: I Would Plead with God

² I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me;
Show me why You contend with me.

³ Does it seem good to You that You should oppress,
That You should despise the work of Your hands,
And smile on the counsel of the wicked?

⁴ Do You have eyes of flesh?
Or do You see as man sees?

⁵ Are Your days like the days of a mortal man?
Are Your years like the days of a mighty man,

⁶ That You should seek for my iniquity
And search out my sin,

⁷ Although You know that I am not wicked,
And there is no one who can deliver from Your hand?

⁸ ‘Your hands have made me and fashioned me,
An intricate unity;
Yet You would destroy me.

⁹ Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay.
And will You turn me into dust again?

¹⁰ Did You not pour me out like milk,
And curdle me like cheese,

¹¹ Clothe me with skin and flesh,
And knit me together with bones and sinews?

¹² You have granted me life and favor,
And Your care has preserved my spirit.

¹³ ‘And these things You have hidden in Your heart;
I know that this was with You:

¹⁴ If I sin, then You mark me,
And will not acquit me of my iniquity.

¹⁵ If I am wicked, woe to me;
Even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head.
I am full of disgrace;
See my misery!

¹⁶ If my head is exalted,
You hunt me like a fierce lion,
And again You show Yourself awesome against me.

¹⁷ You renew Your witnesses against me,
And increase Your indignation toward me;
Changes and war are ever with me.

¹⁸ ‘Why then have You brought me out of the womb?
Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me!

¹⁹ I would have been as though I had not been.
I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.

²⁰ Are not my days few?
Cease! Leave me alone, that I may take a little comfort,

²¹ Before I go to the place from which I shall not return,
To the land of darkness and the shadow of death,

²² A land as dark as darkness itself,
As the shadow of death, without any order,
Where even the light is like darkness.’”