New English [1970], THE NEW ENGLISH BIBLE (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS; CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE) [word count] [B16000].
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1 I am sickened of life;
I will give free rein to my griefs,
I will speak out in bitterness of soul.
2 I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me,
but tell me the ground of thy complaint against me.
3 Dost thou find any advantage in oppression,
in spurning the fruit of all thy labour
and smiling on the policy of wicked men?
4 Hast thou eyes of flesh
or dost thou see as mortal man sees?
5 Are thy days as those of a mortal
or thy years as the life of a man,
6 that thou lookest for guilt in me
and dost seek in me for sin,
-- --
First cycle of speeches
7 though thou knowest that I am guiltless
and have none to save me from thee?
8 ‘Thy hands gave me shape and made me;
and dost thou at once turn and destroy me?
9 Remember that thou didst knead me like clay;
and wouldst thou turn me back into dust?
10 Didst thou not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese,
11 clothe me with skin and flesh
and knit me together with bones and sinews?
12 Thou hast given me life and continuing favour,
and thy providence has watched over my spirit.
13 Yet this was the secret purpose of thy heart,
and I know that this was thy intent:
14 that, if I sinned, thou wouldst be watching me
and wouldst not acquit me of my guilt.
15 If I indeed am wicked, the worse for me!
If I am righteous, even so I may lift up my head; note
16 if I am note proud as a lion, thou dost hunt me down
and dost confront me again with marvellous power;
17 thou dost renew thy onslaught upon me,
and with mounting anger against me
bringest fresh forces to the attack.
18 Why didst thou bring me out of the womb?
O that I had ended there and no eye had seen me,
19 that I had been carried from the womb to the grave
and were as though I had not been born.
20 Is not my life short and fleeting?
Let me be, that I may be happy for a moment,
21 before I depart to a land of gloom,
a land of deep darkness, never to return,
22 a land of gathering shadows, of deepening darkness,
lit by no ray of light, note dark note upon dark.’
New English [1970], THE NEW ENGLISH BIBLE (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS; CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE) [word count] [B16000].
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