[1] “I am disgusted with my life. Let me complain freely. My bitter soul must complain.
[2] I will say to God, ‘Don’t simply condemn me— tell me the charge you are bringing 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?
[4] Are your eyes like those of a human? Do you see things only as people see them?
[5] Is your lifetime only as long as ours? Is your life so short
[6] that you must quickly probe for my guilt and search for my sin?
[7] Although you know I am not guilty, no one can rescue me from your hands.
[8] “‘You formed me with your hands; you made me, yet now you completely destroy me.
[9] Remember that you made me from dust— will you turn me back to dust so soon?
[10] You guided my conception and formed me in the womb.
[11] You clothed me with skin and flesh, and you knit my bones and sinews together.
[12] You gave me life and showed me your unfailing love. My life was preserved by your care.
[13] “‘Yet your real motive— your true intent—
[14] was to watch me, and if I sinned, you would not forgive my guilt.
[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.
[16] And if I hold my head high, you hunt me like a lion and display your awesome power against me.
[17] Again and again you witness against me. You pour out your growing anger on me and bring fresh armies against me.
[18] “‘Why, then, did you deliver me from my mother’s womb? Why didn’t you let me die at birth?
[19] It would be as though I had never existed, going directly 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
[21] before I leave—never to return— for the land of darkness and utter gloom.
[22] It is a land as dark as midnight, a land of gloom and confusion, where even the light is dark as midnight.’”