- 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 say unto +God, Do not condemn me;
shew me wherefore thou strivest with me.
- 3
- Doth it please thee to oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thy hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
- 4
- Hast thou eyes of flesh?
or seest thou as man seeth?
- 5
- Are thy days as the days of a mortal?
are thy years as a man's days,
- 6
- That thou searchest after mine iniquity, and inquirest into my sin;
- 7
- Since thou knowest that I am not wicked, and that there is none that delivereth out of thy hand?
- 8
- Thy hands have bound me together and made me as one, round about;
yet dost thou swallow me up!
- 9
- Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as clay, and wilt bring me into dust again.
- 10
- Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?
- 11
- Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews;
- 12
- Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy care hath preserved my spirit;
- 13
- And these things didst thou hide in thy heart;
I know that this was with thee.
- 14
- If I sinned, thou wouldest mark me, and thou wouldest not acquit me of mine iniquity.
- 15
- If I were wicked, woe unto me!
and righteous, I will not lift up my head, being [so] full of shame, and beholding mine affliction; —
- 16
- And it increaseth: thou huntest me as a fierce lion;
and ever again thou shewest thy marvellous power upon me.
- 17
- Thou renewest thy witnesses before me and increasest thy displeasure against me;
successions [of evil] and a time of toil are with me.
- 18
- And wherefore didst thou bring me forth out of the womb?
I had expired, and no eye had seen me.
- 19
- I should be as though I had not been;
I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
- 20
- Are not my days few?
cease then and let me alone, that I may revive a little,
- 21
- Before I go, and never to return, — to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
- 22
- A land of gloom, as darkness itself;
of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as thick darkness.
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