10:1 “I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
10:2 I say to God: Do not declare me guilty, but tell me what charges you have against me.
10:3 Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the plans of the wicked?
10:4 Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees?
10:5 Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a strong man,
10:6 that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin -
10:7 though you know that I am not guilty and that no one can rescue me from your hand?
10:8 “Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me?
10:9 Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?
10:10 Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese,
10:11 clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews?
10:12 You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.
10:13 “But this is what you concealed in your heart, and I know that this was in your mind:
10:14 If I sinned, you would be watching me and would not let my offense go unpunished.
10:15 If I am guilty - woe to me! Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head, for I am full of shame and drowned in* my affliction. / *Or and aware of
10:16 If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion and again display your awesome power against me.
10:17 You bring new witnesses against me and increase your anger toward me; your forces come against me wave upon wave.
10:18 “Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.
10:19 If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!
10:20 Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy
10:21 before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness,
10:22 to the land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”