Job 10:3-22

10:3 Is it good for you to oppress,

to despise the work of your hands,

while you smile

on the schemes of the wicked?

Motivations of God

10:4 “Do you have eyes of flesh,

or do you see as a human being sees?

10:5 Are your days like the days of a mortal,

or your years like the years of a mortal,

10:6 that you must search out my iniquity,

and inquire about my sin,

10:7 although you know that I am not guilty,

and that there is no one who can deliver

out of your hand?

Contradictions in God’s Dealings

10:8 “Your hands have shaped me and made me,

but now you destroy me completely.

10:9 Remember that you have made me as with the clay;

will you return me to dust?

10:10 Did you not pour me out like milk,

and curdle me like cheese?

10:11 You clothed me with skin and flesh

and knit me together with bones and sinews.

10:12 You gave me life and favor,

and your intervention watched over my spirit.

10:13 “But these things you have concealed in your heart;

I know that this is with you:

10:14 If I sinned, then you would watch me

and you would not acquit me of my iniquity.

10:15 If I am guilty, woe to me,

and if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head;

I am full of shame,

and satiated with my affliction.

10:16 If I lift myself up,

you hunt me as a fierce lion,

and again you display your power against me.

10:17 You bring new witnesses against me,

and increase your anger against me;

relief troops come against me.

An Appeal for Relief

10:18 “Why then did you bring me out from the womb?

I should have died

and no eye would have seen me!

10:19 I should have been as though I had never existed;

I should have been carried

right from the womb to the grave!

10:20 Are not my days few?

Cease, then, and leave me alone,

that I may find a little comfort,

10:21 before I depart, never to return,

to the land of darkness

and the deepest shadow,

10:22 to the land of utter darkness,

like the deepest darkness,

and the deepest shadow and disorder,

where even the light is like darkness.”