| 1 | “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, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me. |
| 3 | Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked? |
| 4 | Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as humans see? |
| 5 | Are your days like the days of mortals, or your years like human years, |
| 6 | that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, |
| 7 | although you know that I am not guilty, and there is no one to deliver out of your hand? |
| 8 | Your hands fashioned and made me; and now you turn and destroy me. |
| 9 | Remember that you fashioned me like clay; and will you turn me to dust again? |
| 10 | Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? |
| 11 | You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. |
| 12 | You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit. |
| 13 | Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose. |
| 14 | If I sin, you watch me, and do not acquit me of my iniquity. |
| 15 | If I am wicked, woe to me! If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look upon my affliction. |
| 16 | Bold as a lion you hunt me; you repeat your exploits against me. |
| 17 | You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me. |
| 18 | “Why did you bring me forth from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me, |
| 19 | and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave. |
| 20 | Are not the days of my life few? Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort |
| 21 | before I go, never to return, to the land of gloom and deep darkness, |
| 22 | the land of gloom and chaos, where light is like darkness.” |