1 “ My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2 I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me.

3 I s it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?

4 D o you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?

5 A re your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years,

6 t hat you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?

7 A lthough you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.

8 “ ‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.

9 R emember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?

10 H aven’t you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?

11 Y ou have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.

12 Y ou have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.

13 Y et you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:

14 i f I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.

15 I f I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.

16 I f my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.

17 Y ou renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.

18 “ ‘Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.

19 I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

20 A ren’t my days few? Cease then. Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,

21 b efore I go where I shall not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

22 t he land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”