[1] I loathe my life; I will let loose my complaint; I will speak out of my own bitterness. [2] I will say to God, Don’t declare me guilty; tell me what you are accusing me of doing. [3] Does it seem good to you that you oppress me, that you reject the work of your hands and cause the purpose of sinners to shine? [4] Do you have physical eyes; do you see like a human? [5] Are your days like those of a human, your years like years of a human, [6] that you search for my wrongdoing and seek my sin? [7] You know that I’m not guilty, yet no one delivers me from your power. [8] Your hands fashioned and made me; yet you want to destroy me utterly. [9] Remember that you made me from clay, and you will return me to dust. [10] Didn’t you pour me out like milk, curdle me like cheese? [11] You clothed me with skin and flesh, wove me from bones and sinews. [12] Life and kindness you gave me, and you oversaw and preserved my breath. [13] These things you hid in your heart; I know this is the case with you. [14] If I sin and you observe me, you won’t consider me innocent of wrongdoing. [15] If I were guilty, doom to me; I’m innocent, but can’t lift my head, full of shame and facing my misery. [16] I could boast like a lion, and you would hunt me; you would do awesome things to me again. [17] You continue to send your witnesses against me and increase your anger toward me, a swift army against me. [18] Why did you let me emerge from the womb? I wish I had died without any eye seeing me. [19] Then I would be just as if I hadn’t existed, taken from the belly to the grave. [20] Aren’t my few days coming to an end? Look away from me so I can brighten up a little [21] before I go and don’t return to a land of deepest darkness, [22] a land whose light is like gloom, utter darkness and confusion, such that light shines like gloom.
