Chapter 10
Tell Me Why!
1 “I loathe my very life;
therefore I will give free rein to my complaints
and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God: ‘Do not condemn me,
but simply let me know what is your charge against me.
3 Do you get any joy in oppressing me,
spurning the work of your own hands
while approving the schemes 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 man,
6 that you investigate my iniquity
and keep a record of my sins,
7 even though you know that I am innocent
and have no one to rescue me from your hand?
I Realize What Was Your Intent
8 “ ‘Your hands created and fashioned me;
will you now turn away and destroy me?
9 Remember that you fashioned me like clay;
will you now reduce me again to dust?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 “ ‘You have given me life and kindness,
and in your providence you have preserved my spirit.
13 Yet within your heart you had a secret plan,
and I realize what was your intent:
14 you would be watching me,
and if I sinned, you would not absolve me of my guilt.
15 “ ‘Woe to me if I should be wicked.
Even if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head,
for I am filled with shame
and bent over with affliction.
16 Should I lift up my head, you hunt me like a proud lion,
confronting me time and again with your awesome power.
17 You renew your onslaughts against me,
your fury increasing incessantly
as fresh troops assail me wave after wave.
Let Me Alone So That I May Have a Few Moments of Happiness
18 “ ‘Why did you bring me forth from the womb?
It would have been better if I had died
before an eye had beheld me,
19 and had been carried from the womb to the grave
as though I had never existed.
20 Do I not have but a few remaining days of life?
Let me alone so that I may have a few moments of happiness
21 before I go to the place of no return,
to the land of gloom and darkness,
22 to the land of deepest night,
a land of gloom and disorder,
where even the light is like darkness.’ ”
Footnotes
- Job 10:1
- Job 10:8
