Job 10:1-9,16-22
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 human being,
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?
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.”
August 31st, 2008 at 12:08 pm
From the daily guide:
Job briefly returns to his theme from chapter seven: he’s just a small human being, and he can’t understand why God is paying so much attention to him. Then another thought occurs to him: God made him. If he is God’s handiwork, why would God want to destroy him? This suffering that he has experienced just doesn’t make sense to him, any way he looks at it.
By the end of this speech, Job seems more tired than anything else. He begs God for a reprieve. He’s suffered enough; can’t God just give him a moment’s peace before he dies?