So this is what you have now become to me.
When you see something dreadful, you are afraid.

Isn’t mankind consigned to forced labor on earth?
Are not his days like those of a hired hand?

When I lie down I think:
When will I get up?
But the evening drags on endlessly,
and I toss and turn until dawn.

My days pass more swiftly than a weaver’s shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.

The eye of anyone who looks on me
will no longer see me.
Your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.

As a cloud fades away and vanishes,
so the one who goes down to Sheol will never rise again.

Therefore I will not restrain my mouth.
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

When I say: My bed will comfort me,
and my couch will ease my complaint,

so that I prefer strangling—
death rather than life in this body.

Why not forgive my sin
and pardon my transgression?
For soon I will lie down in the grave.
You will eagerly seek me, but I will be gone.

How long will you go on saying these things?
Your words are a blast of wind.

if you are pure and upright,
then He will move even now on your behalf
and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.

since we were born only yesterday and know nothing.
Our days on earth are but a shadow.

His source of confidence is fragile;
what he trusts in is a spider’s web.

He leans on his web, but it doesn’t stand firm.
He grabs it, but it does not hold up.

He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine;
his shoots spread out over his garden.

If one wanted to take Him to court,
he could not answer God once in a thousand times.

He removes mountains without their knowledge,
overturning them in His anger.

He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads on the waves of the sea.

God does not hold back His anger;
Rahab’s assistants cringe in fear beneath Him!

Even if I were in the right, I could not answer.
I could only beg my Judge for mercy.

If it is a matter of strength, look, He is the Mighty One!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?

Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.

When disaster brings sudden death,
He mocks the despair of the innocent.

They sweep by like boats made of papyrus,
like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

I would still live in terror of all my pains.
I know You will not acquit me.

Since I will be found guilty,
why should I labor in vain?

then You dip me in a pit of mud,
and my own clothes despise me!

There is no one to judge between us,
to lay his hand on both of us.

Then I would speak and not fear Him.
But that is not the case; I am on my own.

>

I am disgusted with my life.
I will express my complaint
and speak in the bitterness of my soul.

even though You know that I am not wicked
and that there is no one who can deliver from Your hand?

“Yet You concealed these thoughts in Your heart;
I know that this was Your hidden plan:

Should your babbling put others to silence,
so that you can keep on ridiculing
with no one to humiliate you?

You have said, “My teaching is sound,
and I am pure in Your sight.”

If He passes by and throws someone in prison
or convenes a court, who can stop Him?

As for you, if you redirect your heart
and lift up your hands to Him in prayer—

if there is iniquity in your hand, remove it,
and don’t allow injustice to dwell in your tents—

You will be confident, because there is hope.
You will look carefully about and lie down in safety.

I am a laughingstock to my friends,
by calling on God, who answers me.
The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.

The one who is at ease holds calamity in contempt
and thinks it is prepared for those whose feet are slipping.

The life of every living thing is in His hand,
as well as the breath of all mankind.

When He withholds the waters, everything dries up,
and when He releases them, they destroy the land.

He releases the bonds put on by kings
and fastens a belt around their waists.

He pours out contempt on nobles
and disarms the strong.

He deprives the world’s leaders of reason,
and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.

They grope around in darkness without light;
He makes them stagger like drunken men.

>

Would you testify unjustly on God’s behalf
or speak deceitfully for Him?

Would you show partiality to Him
or argue the case in His defense?

Would God’s majesty not terrify you?
Would His dread not fall on you?

Why do I put myself at risk
and take my life in my own hands?

Even if He kills me, I will hope in Him.
I will still defend my ways before Him.

Yes, this will result in my deliverance,
for no godless person can appear before Him.

Pay close attention to my words;
let my declaration ring in your ears.

You put my feet in the stocks
and stand watch over all my paths,
setting a limit for the soles of my feet.

Do You really take notice of one like this?
Will You bring me into judgment against You?

Who can produce something pure from what is impure?
No one!

Since man’s days are determined
and the number of his months depends on You,
and since You have set limits he cannot pass,

If its roots grow old in the ground
and its stump starts to die in the soil,

If only You would hide me in Sheol
and conceal me until Your anger passes.
If only You would appoint a time for me
and then remember me.

When a man dies, will he come back to life?
If so, I would wait all the days of my struggle
until my relief comes.

My rebellion would be sealed up in a bag,
and You would cover over my iniquity.

You completely overpower him, and he passes on;
You change his appearance and send him away.

He feels only the pain of his own body
and mourns only for himself.

Your own mouth condemns you, not I;
your own lips testify against you.

Do you listen in on the council of God,
or have a monopoly on wisdom?

What is man, that he should be pure,
or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?

If God puts no trust in His holy ones
and the heavens are not pure in His sight,

how much less one who is revolting and corrupt,
who drinks injustice like water?

the land was given to them alone
when no foreigner passed among them.

A wicked man writhes in pain all his days;
only a few years are reserved for the ruthless.

Dreadful sounds fill his ears;
when he is at peace, a robber attacks him.

he will dwell in ruined cities,
in abandoned houses destined to become piles of rubble.

Let him not put trust in worthless things, being led astray,
for what he gets in exchange will prove worthless.

He will be like a vine that drops its unripe grapes
and like an olive tree that sheds its blossoms.

If you were in my place I could also talk like you.
I could string words together against you
and shake my head at you.

His archers surround me.
He pierces my kidneys without mercy
and pours my bile on the ground.

I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;
I have buried my strength in the dust.

Even now my witness is in heaven,
and my advocate is in the heights!

If a man informs on his friends for a price,
the eyes of his children will fail.

He has made me an object of scorn to the people;
I have become a man people spit at.

Yet the righteous person will hold to his way,
and the one whose hands are clean will grow stronger.

They turned night into day
and made light seem near in the face of darkness.

If I await Sheol as my home,
spread out my bed in darkness,

Why are we regarded as cattle,
as stupid in your sight?

You who tear yourself in anger—
should the earth be abandoned on your account,
or a rock be removed from its place?

The light in his tent grows dark,
and the lamp beside him is put out.

His powerful stride is shortened,
and his own schemes trip him up.

For his own feet lead him into a net,
and he strays into its mesh.

A rope lies hidden for him on the ground,
and a snare waits for him along the path.

Terrors frighten him on every side
and harass him at every step.

Nothing he owned remains in his tent.
Burning sulfur is scattered over his home.

Those in the west are appalled at his fate,
while those in the east tremble in horror.

Indeed, such is the dwelling of the unjust man,
and this is the place of the one who does not know God.

then understand that it is God who has wronged me
and caught me in His net.

He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined.
He uproots my hope like a tree.

His anger burns against me,
and He regards me as one of His enemies.

My house guests and female servants regard me as a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.

I call for my servant, but he does not answer,
even if I beg him with my own mouth.

My breath is offensive to my wife,
and my own family finds me repulsive.