Chapter 10

  'My soul is weary of my life; I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.  

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  I will tell God, 'Do not condemn me, Show me why you contend with me.  

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  Is it good to you that you should oppress, That you should despise the work of your hands, And smile on the counsel of the wicked?  

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  Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?  

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  Are your days as the days of mortals, Or your years as man's years,  

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  That you inquire after my iniquity, And search after my sin?  

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  Although you know that I am not wicked, There is no one who can deliver out of your hand.  

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  'Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether; Yet you destroy me.  

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  Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?  

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  Haven't you poured me out like milk, And curdled me like cheese?  

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  You have clothed me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews.  

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  You have granted me life and lovingkindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.  

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  Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:  

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  If I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.  

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  If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, Being filled with disgrace, And conscious of my affliction.  

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  If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.  

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  You renew your witnesses against me, And increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.  

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  ''Why, then, have you brought me forth out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.  

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  I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.  

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  Aren't my days few? Cease then, Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,  

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  Before I go where I shall not return from, To the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;  

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  The land dark as midnight, Of the shadow of death, without any order, Where the light is as midnight.''  

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