^{1 Ref} "My soul is weary of my life; I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

^{2 Ref} I will tell God, 'Do not condemn me, Show me why you contend with me.

^{3 Ref} 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?

^{4 Ref} Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?

^{5 Ref} Are your days as the days of mortals, Or your years as man's years,

^{6 Ref} That you inquire after my iniquity, And search after my sin?

^{7 Ref} Although you know that I am not wicked, There is no one who can deliver out of your hand.

^{8 Ref} 'Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether; Yet you destroy me.

^{9 Ref} Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?

^{10 Ref} Haven't you poured me out like milk, And curdled me like cheese?

^{11 Ref} You have clothed me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews.

^{12 Ref} You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.

^{13 Ref} Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:

^{14 Ref} If I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.

^{15 Ref} 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.

^{16 Ref} If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.

^{17 Ref} You renew your witnesses against me, And increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.

^{18 Ref} "'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.

^{19 Ref} I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

^{20 Ref} Aren't my days few? Cease then, Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,

^{21 Ref} Before I go where I shall not return from, To the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

^{22 Ref} The land dark as midnight, Of the shadow of death, without any order, Where the light is as midnight.'"