1 “My soul loathes my life;I will freely give my complaint,I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me;show me why You contend with me.
3 Is it good for You that You should oppress,that You should despise the work of Your handsand smile on the counsel of the wicked?
4 Do You have eyes of flesh?Or do You see as man sees?
5 Are Your days as the days of man?Are Your years as the days of a mortal,
6 that You inquire after my iniquityand search after my sin?
7 You know that I am not wicked,and there is none who can deliver out of Your hand.
8 “Your hands have shaped me and made me completely,yet You destroy me.
9 Remember, I pray,that You have made me as the clay.And would You return me to dust?
10 Have You not poured me out as milkand curdled me like cheese?
11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh,and have knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and loyal love,and Your care has preserved my spirit.
13 “These things You have hid in Your heart.I know that this is with You.
14 If I have sinned, then You would watchme,and You would not acquit me from my iniquity.
15 If I am wicked, woe unto me;and if I am righteous, yet will I not lift up my head.I am full of shame;look at my affliction!
16 For if my head is lifted up, You would hunt me like a lion,and again You show Yourself marvelous to me.
17 You renew Your witnesses against meand increase Your indignation upon me.Your troops come against me.
18 “Why then did You bring me forth out of the womb?Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seenme!
19 I should have been as though I had not been;I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not my days few? Stop then,and leave me alone that I may cheer up a little,
21 before I go and do not return,even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death,
22 a land of darkness, as darkness itself;and of the shadow of death, without any order,and where the light is as thick darkness.”