Job’s Plea to God 1 DRA My soul is weary of my life, I will let go my speech against myself, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. BSB BSB: “I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 DRA I will say to God: Do not condemn me: tell me why thou judgest me so. BSB BSB: I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.
3 DRA Doth it seem good to thee that thou shouldst calumniate me, and oppress me, the work of thy own hands, and help the counsel of the wicked? BSB BSB: Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?
4 DRA Hast thou eyes of flesh: or, shalt thou see as man seeth? BSB BSB: Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as man sees?
5 DRA Are thy days as the days of man, and are thy years as the times of men: BSB BSB: Are Your days like those of a mortal, or Your years like those of a man,
6 DRA That thou shouldst inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin? BSB BSB: that You should seek my iniquity and search out my sin—
7 DRA And shouldst know that I have done no wicked thing, whereas there is no man that can deliver out of thy hand. BSB BSB: though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
8 DRA Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me wholly round about, and dost thou thus cast me down headlong on a sudden? BSB BSB: Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?
9 DRA Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay, and thou wilt bring me into dust again. BSB BSB: Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?
10 DRA Hast thou not milked me as milk, and curdled me like cheese? BSB BSB: Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese?
11 DRA Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh: thou hast put me together with bones and sinews: BSB BSB: You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 DRA Thou hast granted me life and mercy, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit. BSB BSB: You have granted me life and loving devotion, and Your care has preserved my spirit.
13 DRA Although thou conceal these things in thy heart, yet I know that thou rememberest all things. BSB BSB: Yet You concealed these things in Your heart, and I know that this was in Your mind:
14 DRA If I have sinned and thou hast spared me for an hour: why dost thou not suffer me to be clean from my iniquity? BSB BSB: If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
15 DRA And if I be wicked, woe unto me: and if just, I shall not lift up my head, being filled with affliction and misery. BSB BSB: If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.
16 DRA And for pride thou wilt take me as a lioness, and returning thou tormentest me wonderfully. BSB BSB: Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.
17 DRA Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and multipliest thy wrath upon me, and pains war against me. BSB BSB: You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.
18 DRA Why didst thou bring me forth out of the womb: O that I had been consumed that eye might not see me! BSB BSB: Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!
19 DRA I should have been as if I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave. BSB BSB: If only I had never come to be, but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 DRA Shall not the fewness of my days be ended shortly? suffer me, therefore, that I may lament my sorrow a little: BSB BSB: Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort,
21 DRA Before I go, and return no more, to a land that is dark and covered with the mist of death: BSB BSB: before I go—never to return—to a land of darkness and gloom,
22 DRA A land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and no order, but everlasting horror dwelleth. BSB BSB: to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.