10:2 I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me;
tell me why you are contending with me.’
10:3 Is it good for you to oppress,
to despise the work of your hands,
while you smile
on the schemes of the wicked?
10:4 “Do you have eyes of flesh,
or do you see as a human being sees?
10:5 Are your days like the days of a mortal,
or your years like the years of a mortal,
10:6 that you must search out my iniquity,
and inquire about my sin,
10:7 although you know that I am not guilty,
and that there is no one who can deliver
out of your hand?
10:8 “Your hands have shaped me and made me,
but now you destroy me completely.
10:9 Remember that you have made me as with the clay;
will you return me to dust?
10:10 Did you not pour me out like milk,
and curdle me like cheese?
10:11 You clothed me with skin and flesh
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
10:12 You gave me life and favor,
and your intervention watched over my spirit.
10:13 “But these things you have concealed in your heart;
I know that this is with you:
10:14 If I sinned, then you would watch me
and you would not acquit me of my iniquity.
10:15 If I am guilty, woe to me,
and if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head;
I am full of shame,
and satiated with my affliction.
10:16 If I lift myself up,
you hunt me as a fierce lion,
and again you display your power against me.
10:17 You bring new witnesses against me,
and increase your anger against me;
relief troops come against me.
10:18 “Why then did you bring me out from the womb?
I should have died
and no eye would have seen me!
10:19 I should have been as though I had never existed;
I should have been carried
right from the womb to the grave!
10:20 Are not my days few?
Cease, then, and leave me alone,
that I may find a little comfort,
10:21 before I depart, never to return,
to the land of darkness
and the deepest shadow,