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10. Job Replies

¹ “I loathe my very life;
   therefore I will give free rein to my complaint
   and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
² I say to God: Do not declare me guilty,
   but tell me what charges you have against me.
³ Does it please you to oppress me,
   to spurn the work of your hands,
   while you smile on the plans of the wicked?
⁴ Do you have eyes of flesh?
   Do you see as a mortal sees?
⁵ Are your days like those of a mortal
   or your years like those of a strong man,
⁶ that you must search out my faults
   and probe after my sin—
⁷ though you know that I am not guilty
   and that no one can rescue me from your hand?

    ⁸ “Your hands shaped me and made me.
   Will you now turn and destroy me?
⁹ Remember that you molded me like clay.
   Will you now turn me to 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 gave me life and showed me kindness,
   and in your providence watched over my spirit.

    ¹³ “But this is what you concealed in your heart,
   and I know that this was in your mind:
¹⁴ If I sinned, you would be watching me
   and would not let my offense go unpunished.
¹⁵ If I am guilty—woe to me!
   Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head,
for I am full of shame
   and drowned in Or and aware of my affliction.
¹⁶ If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion
   and again display your awesome power against me.
¹⁷ You bring new witnesses against me
   and increase your anger toward me;
   your forces come against me wave upon wave.

    ¹⁸ “Why then did you bring me out of the womb?
   I wish I had died before any eye saw me.
¹⁹ If only I had never come into being,
   or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!
²⁰ Are not my few days almost over?
   Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy
²¹ before I go to the place of no return,
   to the land of gloom and utter darkness,
²² to the land of deepest night,
   of utter darkness and disorder,
   where even the light is like darkness.”