איוב י

I am disgusted with life;
I will give rein to my complaint,
Speak in the bitterness of my soul.

I say to God, “Do not condemn me;
Let me know what You charge me with.

Does it benefit You to defraud,
To despise the toil of Your hands,
While smiling on the counsel of the wicked?

Do You have the eyes of flesh?
Is Your vision that of a mere mortal?

Are Your days the days of a mortal,
Are Your years the years of a person,

That You seek my iniquity
And search out my sin?

You know that I am not guilty,
And that there is none to deliver from Your hand.

“Your hands shaped and fashioned me,
Then destroyed every part of me.

Consider that You fashioned me like clay;
Will You then turn me back into dust?

You poured me out like milk,
Congealed me like cheese;

You clothed me with skin and flesh
And wove me of bones and sinews;

You bestowed on me life and care;
Your providence watched over my spirit.

Yet these things You hid in Your heart;
I know that You had this in mind:

To watch me when I sinned
And not clear me of my iniquity;

Should I be guilty—the worse for me!
And even when innocent, I cannot lift my head;
So sated am I with shame,
And drenched in my misery.

It is something to be proud of to hunt me like a lion,
To show Yourself wondrous through. me time and again!

You keep sending fresh witnesses against me,
Letting Your vexation with me grow.
I serve my term and am my own replacement.

“Why did You let me come out of the womb?
Better had I expired before any eye saw me,

Had I been as though I never was,
Had I been carried from the womb to the grave.

My days are few, so desist!
Leave me alone, let me be diverted awhile

Before I depart—never to return—
For the land of deepest gloom;

A land whose light is darkness,
All gloom and disarray,
Whose light is like darkness.”