¹ “I loathe my very life;
therefore I will give free rein to my complaint
and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
² I say to God: Do not declare me guilty,
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 plans of the wicked?
⁴ Do you have eyes of flesh?
Do you see as a mortal sees?
⁵ Are your days like those of a mortal
or your years like those of a strong man,
⁶ that you must search out my faults
and probe after my sin-
⁷ though you know that I am not guilty
and that no one can rescue me from your hand?
⁸ “Your hands shaped 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,
¹¹ clothe me with skin and flesh
and knit me together with bones and sinews?
¹² You gave me life and showed me kindness,
and in your providence watched over my spirit.
¹³ “But 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 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.
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 any eye 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 few days almost over?
Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy
²¹ before I go to the place of no return,
to the land of gloom and utter darkness,
²² to the land of deepest night,
of utter darkness and disorder,
where even the light is like darkness.”