[1] "I am weary of my life; I will complain freely without restraint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. [2] I will say to God, 'Do not condemn me; tell me why you are contending with me.' [3] Is it good for you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked? [4] "Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as a human being sees? [5] Are your days like the days of a mortal, or your years like the years of a mortal, [6] that you must search out my iniquity, and inquire about my sin, [7] although you know that I am not guilty, and that there is no one who can deliver out of your hand? [8] "Your hands have shaped me and made me, but now you destroy me completely. [9] Remember that you have made me as with the clay; will you return me to dust? [10] Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese? [11] You clothed me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews. [12] You gave me life and favor, and your intervention watched over my spirit. [13] "But these things you have concealed in your heart; I know that this is with you: [14] If I sinned, then you would watch me and you would not acquit me of my iniquity. [15] If I am guilty, woe to me, and if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head; I am full of shame, and satiated with my affliction. [16] If I lift myself up, you hunt me as a fierce lion, and again you display your power against me. [17] You bring new witnesses against me, and increase your anger against me; relief troops come against me. [18] "Why then did you bring me out from the womb? I should have died and no eye would have seen me! [19] I should have been as though I had never existed; I should have been carried right from the womb to the grave! [20] Are not my days few? Cease, then, and leave me alone that I may find a little comfort, [21] before I depart, never to return, to the land of darkness and the deepest shadow, [22] to the land of utter darkness, like the deepest darkness, and the deepest shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness."
