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