10 1 Job is weary of his life, and setteth out his fragility before God. 20 He desireth him to stay his hand. 22 A description of death.

My soul is cut off [a]though I live: I will leave my [b]complaint upon myself, and will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

I will say unto God, [c]Condemn me not: show me, wherefore thou contendest with me.

Thinkest thou it [d]good to oppress me, and to cast off the [e]labor of thine hands, and to favor the [f]counsel of the wicked?

Hast thou [g]carnal eyes? or dost thou see as man seeth?

Are thy days as man’s [h]days? or thy years as the time of man,

That thou inquirest of mine iniquity, and searchest out my sin?

Thou knowest that I cannot do [i]wickedly: for none can deliver me out of thine hand.

Thine [j]hands have made me, and fashioned me wholly round about, and wilt thou destroy me?

Remember, I pray thee, that thou hast made me as [k]the clay, and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

10 Hast thou not poured me out as milk? and turned me to curds like cheese?

11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and joined me together with bones and sinews.

12 Thou hast given me life, and [l]grace: and the [m]visitation hath preserved my spirit.

13 Though thou hast hid these things in thine heart, yet I know [n]that it is so with thee.

14 If I have sinned, then thou wilt straightly look unto me, and wilt not hold me guiltless of mine iniquity.

15 If I have done wickedly, woe unto me: if I have done righteously, I will not [o]lift up mine head, being full of confusion, because I see mine affliction.

16 But let it increase: hunt thou me as a lion: return and show thyself [p]marvelous upon me.

17 Thou renewest thy plagues against me, and thou increasest thy wrath against me: [q]changes and armies of sorrows are against me.

18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me out of the womb? Oh that I had perished, and that none eye had seen me!

19 And that I were as I had not been, but brought from the womb to the grave!

20 Are not my days few? let him [r]cease, and leave off from me, that I may take a little comfort,

21 Before I go and shall not [s]return, even to the land of darkness and shadow of death:

22 Into a land, I say, dark as darkness itself, and into the shadow of death, where is none [t]order, but the light is there as darkness.

Footnotes

  1. Job 10:1 I am more like to a dead man, than to one that liveth.
  2. Job 10:1 I will make an ample declaration of my torments, accusing myself and not God.
  3. Job 10:2 He would not that God should proceed against him by his secret justice, but by the ordinary means that he punisheth others.
  4. Job 10:3 Is it agreeable to thy justice to do me wrong?
  5. Job 10:3 Wilt thou be without compassion?
  6. Job 10:3 Wilt thou gratify the wicked and condemn me?
  7. Job 10:4 Doest thou this of ignorance?
  8. Job 10:5 Art thou inconstant and changeable, as the times, today a friend, tomorrow an enemy?
  9. Job 10:7 By affliction thou keepest me as in a prison, and restrainest me from doing evil, neither can any set me at liberty.
  10. Job 10:8 In these eight verses following he describeth the mercy of God, in the wonderful creation of man: and thereon groundeth that God should not show himself rigorous against him.
  11. Job 10:9 As brittle as a pot of clay.
  12. Job 10:12 That is, reason and understanding, and many other gifts, whereby man excelleth all earthly creatures.
  13. Job 10:12 That is, thy fatherly care and providence whereby thou preservest me, and without the which I should perish straightway.
  14. Job 10:13 Though I be not fully able to comprehend these things, yet I must needs confess that it is so.
  15. Job 10:15 I will always walk in fear and humility, knowing that none is just before thee.
  16. Job 10:16 Job being sore assaulted in this battle between the flesh and the spirit, bursteth out into these affections, wishing rather short days than long pain.
  17. Job 10:17 That is, diversity of diseases and in great abundance: showing that God hath infinite means to punish man.
  18. Job 10:20 He wisheth that God would leave off his affliction, considering his great misery and the brevity of his life.
  19. Job 10:21 He speaketh thus in the person of a sinner, that is overcome with passions and with the feeling of God’s judgments, and therefore cannot apprehend in that state the mercies of God, and comfort of the resurrection.
  20. Job 10:22 No distinction between light and darkness, but where all is very darkness itself.

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