Job’s Plea to God

1“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint
and speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2I will say to God: Do not condemn me!
Let me know why You prosecute me.

3Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands
and favor the schemes of the wicked?

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

5Are Your days like those of a mortal, or Your years like those of a man,

6that You should seek my iniquity and search out my sin—

7though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?

8Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?

9Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?

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

11You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.

12You have granted me life and loving devotion, ¹⁶and Your care has preserved my spirit.

13Yet You concealed these things in Your heart, and I know that this was in Your mind:

14If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.

15If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.

16Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion,
and again display Your power against me.

17You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.

18Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!

19If only I had never come to be, but had been carried from the womb to the grave.

20Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort,

21before I go—never to return— to a land of darkness and gloom,

22to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder,
where even the light is like darkness.”