| 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. |