1“I loathe my life;

I will give free utterance to my complaint;

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.*

2I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me;

let me know why you contend against me.*

3Does it seem good to you to oppress,

to despise the work of your hands

and favor the schemes of the wicked?*

4Do you have eyes of flesh?

Do you see as humans see?*

5Are your days like the days of mortals

or your years like human years,*

6that you seek out my iniquity

and search for my sin,

7although you know that I am not guilty,

and there is no one to deliver out of your hand?*

8Your hands fashioned and made me,

and now you turn and destroy me.t^,*

9Remember that you fashioned me like clay,

and will you turn me to dust again?*

10Did you not pour me out like milk

and curdle me like cheese?*

11You clothed me with skin and flesh

and knit me together with bones and sinews.

12You have granted me life and steadfast love,

and your care has preserved my spirit.*

13Yet these things you hid in your heart;

I know that this was your purpose.

14If I sin, you watch me

and do not acquit me of my iniquity.*

15If I am wicked, woe to me!

If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head,

for I am filled with disgrace

and look upon my affliction.*

16Bold as a lion you hunt me;

you repeat your exploits against me.*

17You renew your witnesses against me

and increase your vexation toward me;

you bring fresh troops against me.u^,*

18“ ‘Why did you bring me forth from the womb?

Would that I had died before any eye had seen me*

19and were as though I had not been,

carried from the womb to the grave.

20Are not the days of my life few?v

Let me alone, that I may find a little comfortw^,*

21before I go, never to return,

to the land of gloom and deep darkness,

22the land of gloomx and chaos,

where light is like darkness.’ ”