Job Frames His Plea to God: Job 10

Job 10

Job Frames His Plea to God

1"I am disgusted with my life. Let me complain freely. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. 2I will say to God, `Don't simply condemn me--tell me the charge you are bringing against me. 3What do you gain by oppressing me? Why do you reject me, the work of your own hands, while sending joy and prosperity to the wicked? 4Are your eyes only those of a human? Do you see things as people see them? 5Is your lifetime merely human? Is your life so short 6that you are in a hurry to probe for my guilt, to search for my sin? 7Although you know I am not guilty, no one can rescue me from your power.
8" `You formed me with your hands; you made me, and yet you completely destroy me. 9Remember that I am made of dust--will you turn me back to dust so soon? 10You guided my conception and formed me in the womb.[a] 11You clothed me with skin and flesh, and you knit my bones and sinews together. 12You gave me life and showed me your unfailing love. My life was preserved by your care.

13" `Yet your real motive--I know this was your intent-- 14was to watch me, and if I sinned, you would not forgive my iniquity. 15If I am guilty, too bad for me. And even if I'm innocent, I am filled with shame and misery so that I can't hold my head high. 16And if I hold my head high, you hunt me like a lion and display your awesome power against me. 17Again and again you witness against me. You pour out an ever-increasing volume of anger upon me and bring fresh armies against me.

18" `Why, then, did you bring me out of my mother's womb? Why didn't you let me die at birth? 19Then I would have been spared this miserable existence. I would have gone directly from the womb to the grave. 20I have only a little time left, so leave me alone--that I may have a little moment of comfort 21before I leave for the land of darkness and utter gloom, never to return. 22It is a land as dark as midnight, a land of utter gloom where confusion reigns and the light is as dark as midnight.' "



Footnotes:
Job 10:10 Hebrew You poured me out like milk and curdled me like cheese.