¹My being is weary of my life.

I will consign my complaint to myself.

I will speak in the bitterness of my feelings.

²I will say to God,

‘Do not condemn me.

Tell me what you are contending with me about.

³Is it good in your sight that you should oppress?

– That you should reject the work of your hands?

– And that you should shine on the counsel of the wicked?

⁴Have you got eyes of flesh?

Do you see as man sees?

⁵Are your days like the days of mankind?

Are your years like the days of a man,

⁶When you seek my iniquity

And search for my sin?

⁷You know that I do not act wickedly,

But there is no-one to deliver me out of your hand.

⁸Your hands took pains to fashion me,

Yet all around, you swallow me up.

⁹Remember, I pray, that you fashioned me as with clay,

And that you will return me to the dust.

¹⁰Did you not pour me out like milk

And solidify me like cheese?

¹¹You clothed me in skin and flesh

And wove me together with bones and sinews.

¹²You have granted me life and shown me kindness,

And your watchfulness has guarded my spirit,

¹³Yet you have hidden these things in your heart.

I know that this was your intention.

¹⁴If I were to sin,

You would observe me,

And you would not acquit me from my iniquity.

¹⁵If I have acted wickedly,

Woe is me.

If I have been righteous,

I will not lift my head.

I am full of ingloriousness;

Just look at my affliction.

¹⁶For it is increasing;

You hunt me like a fierce lion

And again use wondrous powers against me.

¹⁷You renew your testimonies against me

And increase your anger with me.

And a succession of forces is against me.

¹⁸And why did you bring me out of the womb?

I could have expired,

And no eye would have seen me.

¹⁹I would be as though I had not existed;

I would have been led from the womb to the grave.’

²⁰Are not my days few?

If only he would desist and turn away from me,

Then I would be a little more cheerful

²¹Before I go (and do not return)

To the land of darkness and the shadow of death

²²– A land of weariness like deep darkness,

And of the shadow of death,

Where no order reigns,

And where it shines deep darkness.”