Job 10 — The Holy Bible

Lord, Why Have You Judged Me?

“Since I am weary and groaning in my soul,

I will let loose my words to Him.

Because I am distressed,

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

I will say to the Lord, ‘Do not teach me to be ungodly.

Why have You thus judged me?

Is it good before You if I do wrong,

And that You renounce the work of Your hands,

And give heed to the counsel of the ungodly?

Do You see as the mortal sees?

Do You see as man sees?

Is Your life human life?

Are Your years like the years of a man,

That You examined my lawlessness

And searched out my sins?

You know I have not acted impiously,

But who is he who can deliver from Your hands?

‘Your hands fashioned and made me;

Then You changed Your mind and struck me.

Remember that You fashioned me as clay,

But You are turning me back to earth again.

Did You not squeeze me out like milk

And curdle me like cheese?

You clothed me with skin and flesh,

And knit me together with bones and sinews.

You granted me life and mercy,

And Your visitation has guarded my spirit.

‘Since You have these things in Yourself,

I know You are able to do all things;

For nothing is impossible for You.

For if I sin, You watch me;

And because of my lawlessness

You will not consider me innocent.

For if I am ungodly, woe to me,

And if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head;

For I am full of dishonor.

I am trapped like a lion for slaughter;

For again You have changed, and You are destroying me.

You renewed my affliction upon me,

And dealt with me in great wrath;

For You brought severe ordeals upon me.

‘Why then did You bring me out of the womb?

Why did I not die, and no eye see me?

Why have I become as though I had not been?

For why was I not carried from the womb to the grave?

Is not the time of my life short?

Allow me to rest a little

Before I go to the place from which I shall not return,

To an obscure and dark land,

To a land of eternal darkness, where there is no light,

Neither can any one see the life of mortals.’”