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Job Keeps On Talking

¹ "I hate my life. I will be free in my complaining. I will show how bitter I am in my soul when I speak. ² I will say to God, ‘Do not say that I am guilty and punish me. Let me know why You work against me. ³ Do You think it is right for You to make it hard for me, to turn away from the work of Your hands and favor the plans of the sinful? ⁴ Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as a man sees? ⁵ Are Your days as the days of man, or Your years as man's years, ⁶ that You should look for my wrong-doing and my sin? ⁷ You know that I am not guilty, yet there is no one who can take me away from Your hand.

⁸ ‘Your hands put me together and made me, and now would You destroy me? ⁹ Remember that You have made me as clay. Would You turn me into dust again? ¹⁰ Did You not pour me out like milk and make me become hard like cheese? ¹¹ You have given me clothing of skin and flesh, and have tied me together with bones and cord. ¹² You have given me life and loving-kindness. Your care has kept my spirit alive. ¹³ Yet You have hidden these things in Your heart. I know that this is in Your thoughts. ¹⁴ If I sin, You would see me, and would not free me from my guilt. ¹⁵ If I am sinful, it would be bad for me! If I am right and good, I cannot lift my head for I am filled with shame and see all my trouble. ¹⁶ If I would lift up my head, You would hunt me like a lion. Again You would show Your power against me. ¹⁷ You would send new ones who would speak against me, and become more angry with me. You would send me more and more trouble.

¹⁸ ‘Why then did You let me be born? If only I had died and no one had seen me! ¹⁹ I should have been as if I had never lived, carried from my mother to the grave.' ²⁰ Are not my days few? Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort ²¹ before I go to a place from which I will not return. I will go to the land of darkness and shadow. ²² It is the land of complete darkness and shadow and trouble, where the light is darkness."