10:1 | "I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul. |
10:2 | I will say to God: Do not condemn me, but tell me what charges you have against me. |
10:3 | Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked? |
10:4 | Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees? |
10:5 | Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a man, |
10:6 | that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin-- |
10:7 | though you know that I am not guilty and that no one can rescue me from your hand? |
10:8 | "Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? |
10:9 | Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? |
10:10 | Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, |
10:11 | clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? |
10:12 | You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit. |
10:13 | "But this is what you concealed in your heart, and I know that this was in your mind: |
10:14 | If I sinned, you would be watching me and would not let my offense go unpunished. |
10:15 | 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 my affliction. |
10:16 | If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion and again display your awesome power against me. |
10:17 | You bring new witnesses against me and increase your anger toward me; your forces come against me wave upon wave. |
10:18 | "Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. |
10:19 | If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave! |
10:20 | Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment's joy |
10:21 | before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and deep shadow, |
10:22 | to the land of deepest night, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness." |
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