Job

¹ “My soul is loathed by my life; I will abandon all restraint in myself to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

² Let me know why You contend with me.

³ That You reject the labor of Your hands, And cause the counsel of the wicked to shine forth?

⁴ Or do You see as a mortal man sees?

⁵ Or Your years as man’s years,

⁶ And search after my sin?

⁷ Yet there is no deliverer from Your hand.

⁸ And would You swallow me up?

⁹ And would You turn me into dust again?

¹⁰ And curdle me like cheese,

¹¹ And knit me together with bones and sinews?

¹² And Your care has kept my spirit.

¹³ I know that this is within You:

¹⁴ And would not acquit me of my guilt.

¹⁵ And if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head. I am sated with disgrace—so see my misery!

¹⁶ And again You would show Your wonders against me.

¹⁷ And increase Your vexation toward me; Hardship after hardship is with me.

¹⁸ Would that I had breathed my last and no eye had seen me!

¹⁹ Carried from womb to tomb.’

²⁰ Withdraw from me that I may have a little cheer

²¹ To the land of darkness and shadow of death,

²² Of the shadow of death, without order, And which shines as the thick darkness.”