Job 10 -- Old Testament -- Gospel Daily

Job

Chapter 10

Job Questions God's Justice and Remembers His Creation

Job declares his soul weary of life and lays his complaint before himself, speaking in bitterness. He begs God not to condemn him but to show him why God contends with him. Job questions whether it is good for God to oppress and despise the work of His own hands while shining upon the counsel of the wicked. He asks if God has eyes of flesh and sees as men see, or if His days are as man's days that He must search after Job's iniquity and sin. Job reminds God that he is not wicked and cannot escape God's hand. He recalls that God fashioned him from clay, clothed him with skin and flesh, and granted him life and favor. Yet despite God's creation of him, God now destroys him. Job protests that if he sins, God marks him; whether wicked or righteous, he cannot lift up his head. He describes God as hunting him like a fierce lion and asks why God brought him forth from the womb, wishing he had died unborn and gone straight to the grave—to that land of darkness and shadow where even light is like darkness.

Soul wearyCreator and destroyerInescapable judgmentDeath wished

¹My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.

³Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?

⁴Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?

⁵Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man's days,

⁶That thou inquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?

⁷Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

⁸Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.

⁹Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

¹⁰Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

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

¹²Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.

¹³And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee.

¹⁴If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.

¹⁵If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

¹⁶For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.

¹⁷Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.

¹⁸Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!

¹⁹I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

²⁰Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

²¹Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

²²A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.