New Living Translation

English Standard Version

Job Frames His Plea to God

“I am disgusted with my life.
Let me complain freely.
My bitter soul must complain.

Job Continues: A Plea to God

“I loathe my life;
I will give free utterance to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2

I will say to God, ‘Don’t simply condemn me —
tell me the charge you are bringing against me.

2

I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
let me know why you contend against me.

3

What do you gain by oppressing me?
Why do you reject me, the work of your own hands,
while smiling on the schemes of the wicked?

3

Does it seem good to you to oppress,
to despise the work of your hands
and favor the designs of the wicked?

4

Are your eyes like those of a human?
Do you see things only as people see them?

4

Have you eyes of flesh?
Do you see as man sees?

5

Is your lifetime only as long as ours?
Is your life so short

5

Are your days as the days of man,
or your years as a man’s years,

6

that you must quickly probe for my guilt
and search for my sin?

6

that you seek out my iniquity
and search for my sin,

7

Although you know I am not guilty,
no one can rescue me from your hands.

7

although you know that I am not guilty,
and there is none to deliver out of your hand?

8

“‘You formed me with your hands; you made me,
yet now you completely destroy me.

8

Your hands fashioned and made me,
and now you have destroyed me altogether.

9

Remember that you made me from dust —
will you turn me back to dust so soon?

9

Remember that you have made me like clay;
and will you return me to the dust?

10

You guided my conception
and formed me in the womb.a

10

Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?

11

You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and you knit my bones and sinews together.

11

You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and knit me together with bones and sinews.

12

You gave me life and showed me your unfailing love.
My life was preserved by your care.

12

You have granted me life and steadfast love,
and your care has preserved my spirit.

13

“‘Yet your real motive —
your true intent —

13

Yet these things you hid in your heart;
I know that this was your purpose.

14

was to watch me, and if I sinned,
you would not forgive my guilt.

14

If I sin, you watch me
and do not acquit me of my iniquity.

15

If I am guilty, too bad for me;
and even if I’m innocent, I can’t hold my head high,
because I am filled with shame and misery.

15

If I am guilty, woe to me!
If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head,
for I am filled with disgrace
and look on my affliction.

16

And if I hold my head high, you hunt me like a lion
and display your awesome power against me.

16

And were my head lifted up,a you would hunt me like a lion
and again work wonders against me.

17

Again and again you witness against me.
You pour out your growing anger on me
and bring fresh armies against me.

17

You renew your witnesses against me
and increase your vexation toward me;
you bring fresh troops against me.

18

“‘Why, then, did you deliver me from my mother’s womb?
Why didn’t you let me die at birth?

18

“Why did you bring me out from the womb?
Would that I had died before any eye had seen me

19

It would be as though I had never existed,
going directly from the womb to the grave.

19

and were as though I had not been,
carried from the womb to the grave.

20

I have only a few days left, so leave me alone,
that I may have a moment of comfort

20

Are not my days few?
Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer

21

before I leave — never to return —
for the land of darkness and utter gloom.

21

before I go — and I shall not return —
to the land of darkness and deep shadow,

22

It is a land as dark as midnight,
a land of gloom and confusion,
where even the light is dark as midnight.’”

22

the land of gloom like thick darkness,
like deep shadow without any order,
where light is as thick darkness.”

Parallel

New Living Translation

English Standard Version

Job 10

Job 10