Job’s Plea to God 1 UEB I am weary of my life; I will give free expression to my complaint; 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 UEB I will say to God, 'Do not merely condemn me; show me why you accuse me. BSB BSB: I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.
3 UEB Is it good to you that you should oppress me, to despise the work of your hands while you smile on the plans 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 UEB Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see like a man sees? BSB BSB: Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as man sees?
5 UEB Are your days like the days of mankind or your years like the years of people, BSB BSB: Are Your days like those of a mortal, or Your years like those of a man,
6 UEB that you inquire after my iniquity and search after my sin, BSB BSB: that You should seek my iniquity and search out my sin—
7 UEB although you know I am not guilty and there is no one who can rescue me from your hand? BSB BSB: though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
8 UEB Your hands have framed and fashioned me together round about, yet you are destroying me. BSB BSB: Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?
9 UEB Call to mind, I beg you, that you have fashioned me like clay; will you bring me into dust again? BSB BSB: Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?
10 UEB Have you not poured me out like milk and curdled me like cheese? BSB BSB: Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese?
11 UEB You have clothed me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews. BSB BSB: You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 UEB You have granted me life and covenant faithfulness; your help has guarded my spirit. BSB BSB: You have granted me life and loving devotion, and Your care has preserved my spirit.
13 UEB Yet these things you hid in your heart— I know that this is what you were thinking: BSB BSB: Yet You concealed these things in Your heart, and I know that this was in Your mind:
14 UEB that if I sinned, you would notice it; you would not acquit me of my iniquity. BSB BSB: If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
15 UEB If I have acted wickedly, woe to me; and even if I acted righteously, I could not lift up my head, since I am filled with disgrace— see my affliction! 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 UEB If my head were lifted up, you would stalk me like a lion; and again you would show yourself with marvellous acts of power against me. BSB BSB: Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.
17 UEB You bring new witnesses against me and increase your anger against me; you attack me with fresh armies. BSB BSB: You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.
18 UEB Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up my spirit and that no eye had ever seen me. BSB BSB: Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!
19 UEB I would have been as though I had never existed; I would have 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 UEB Are not my days only a few? Stop then, let me alone, so that I may have a little rest BSB BSB: Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort,
21 UEB before I go from where I will not return, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death, BSB BSB: before I go—never to return—to a land of darkness and gloom,
22 UEB the land that is as dark as midnight, the land of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is like midnight.'" 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.