ChaplainHonest questioning

Job 10

Job: You Made Me Like Clay — Will You Return Me to Dust?

I Will Let My Words Loose

10:1“Weary in my soul and groaning, I will let my words loose upon Him;
I will speak, held fast by the bitterness of my soul,

10:2and say to the Lord, ‘Do not teach me to act impiously!
Why have You judged me in this way?

10:3Is it good for You if I do wrong,
that I disown the works of Your hands,
while You attended to the counsel of the ungodly?

10:4Do You observe as a mortal sees,
or look as a human being looks?

10:5Is Your life human,
or are Your years those of a man,

10:6that You searched out my lawlessness
and investigated my sins?

10:7For You know that I did not act impiously;
but who is there to rescue from Your hands?

10:8Your hands molded me and made me;
afterward You changed and struck me.

10:9Remember that You molded me as clay,
and You are turning me back again into earth.

10:10Did You not milk me out like milk
and curdle me just like cheese?

10:11You clothed me with skin and flesh
and threaded me together with bones and sinews.

10:12You placed life and mercy beside me,
and Your care guarded my spirit.

10:13You hold these things within Yourself;
I know that You can do all things, and nothing is impossible for You.

10:14For if I sin, You guard me,
and You have not acquitted me of lawlessness.

10:15For if I am ungodly, alas for me!
If I am righteous, I cannot look up,
for I am full of dishonor.

10:16For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter;
changing again, You destroy me terribly,

10:17renewing my examination against me.
You dealt with me in great anger
and brought trials upon me.

10:18Why, then, did You bring me out of the womb?
Why did I not die with no eye seeing me,

10:19and become as though I had not existed?
For why was I not taken from the womb to the tomb?

10:20Is not the time of my life short?
Let me rest a little

10:21before I go where I will not return,
to a dark and gloomy land,

10:22to a land of everlasting darkness,
where there is no brightness
and no seeing the life of mortals.’”

Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.