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 Or [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 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."