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Job Cries Out to God

¹ "^(C1)My soul is loathed by my life;
I will abandon all restraint in myself to ^(C2)my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

² "I will say to God, '^(C1)Do not account me as wicked;
Let me know why You contend with me.

³ 'Is it good to You that You ^(C1)oppress,
That You reject ^(C2)the labor of Your hands,
And ^(F1)cause ^(C3)the counsel of the wicked to shine forth?

⁴ 'Have You eyes of flesh?
Or do You ^(C1)see as a mortal man sees?

⁵ 'Are Your days as the days of a mortal man,
Or ^(C1)Your years as man's years,

⁶ That ^(C1)You should seek for my guilt
And search after my sin?

⁷ 'According to Your knowledge ^(C1)I am indeed not wicked,
Yet there is ^(C2)no ^(F1)deliverer from Your hand.

⁸ '^(C1)Your hands fashioned and made me ^(F1)altogether,
^(C2)And would You swallow me up?

⁹ 'Remember now, that You have made me as ^(C1)clay;
And would You ^(C2)turn me into dust again?

¹⁰ 'Did You not pour me out like milk
And curdle me like cheese,

¹¹ Clothe me with skin and flesh,
And knit me together with bones and sinews?

¹² 'You have ^(C1)made alongside me life and lovingkindness;
And Your care has kept my spirit.

¹³ 'Yet ^(C1)these things You have concealed in Your heart;
I know that this is within You:

¹⁴ If I sin, then You would ^(C1)take note of me
And ^(C2)would not acquit me of my guilt.

¹⁵ 'If ^(C1)I am wicked, woe to me!
And ^(C2)if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head.
I am sated with disgrace—so see my misery!

¹⁶ 'Should my head be set on high, ^(C1)You would hunt me like a lion;
And again You would show Your ^(C2)wonders against me.

¹⁷ 'You renew ^(C1)Your witnesses against me
And increase Your vexation toward me;
^(F1)(C2)Hardship after hardship is with me.

¹⁸ '^(C1)Why then have You brought me out of the womb?
Would that I had breathed my last and no eye had seen me!

¹⁹ 'I should have been as though I had not been,
Carried from womb to tomb.'

²⁰ "Would He not cease ^(C1)for a few of my days?
^(F1)(C2)Withdraw from me that I may have a little cheer

²¹ Before I go—^(C1)and I shall not return—
^(C2)To the land of darkness and ^(C3)shadow of death,

²² The land of utter gloom as the thick darkness itself,
Of the shadow of death, without order,
And which shines as the thick darkness."