[1] I am disgusted with my life. I will give vent to my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul. [2] I will say to God, "Do not declare me guilty! Let me know why you prosecute me. [3] Is it good for you to oppress, to reject the work of your hands, and favor the plans of the wicked? [4] Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as a human sees? [5] Are your days like those of a human, or your years like those of a man, [6] that you look for my iniquity and search for my sin, [7] even though you know that I am not wicked and that there is no one who can rescue from your power? [8] "Your hands shaped me and formed me. Will you now turn and destroy me? [9] Please remember that you formed me like clay. Will you now 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 wove me together with bones and tendons. [12] You gave me life and faithful love, and your care has guarded my life. [13] "Yet you concealed these thoughts in your heart; I know that this was your hidden plan: [14] if I sin, you would notice, and would not acquit me of my iniquity. [15] If I am wicked, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head. I am filled with shame and have drunk deeply of my affliction. [16] If I am proud, you hunt me like a lion and again display your miraculous power against me. [17] You produce new witnesses against me and multiply your anger toward me. Hardships assault me, wave after wave. [18] "Why did you bring me out of the womb? I should have died and never been seen. [19] I wish I had never existed but had been carried from the womb to the grave. [20] Are my days not few? Stop it! Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little [21] before I go to a land of darkness and gloom, never to return. [22] It is a land of blackness like the deepest darkness, gloomy and chaotic, where even the light is like the darkness."
