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# Job, Chapter 10
## Chapter 10
I will give myself up to complaint;
I will speak from the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God: Do not put me in the wrong! ^job-10-2
Let me know why you oppose me.
3 Is it a pleasure for you to oppress, ^job-10-3
to spurn the work of your hands,
and shine on the plan of the wicked?
4 Have you eyes of flesh? ^job-10-4
Do you see as mortals see?
5 Are your days like the days of a mortal, ^job-10-5
and are your years like a human lifetime,
6 That you seek for guilt in me ^job-10-6
and search after my sins,
7 Even though you know that I am not wicked, ^job-10-7
and that none can deliver me out of your hand?
8 Your hands have formed me and fashioned me; ^job-10-8
will you then turn and destroy me?
9 Oh, remember that you fashioned me from clay! ^job-10-9
Will you then bring me down to dust again?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk, ^job-10-10
and thicken me like cheese?
11 With skin and flesh you clothed me, ^job-10-11
with bones and sinews knit me together.
12 Life and love you granted me, ^job-10-12
and your providence has preserved my spirit.
13 Yet these things you have hidden in your heart; ^job-10-13
I know they are your purpose:
14 If I should sin, you would keep a watch on me, ^job-10-14
and from my guilt you would not absolve me.
15 If I should be wicked, alas for me! ^job-10-15
even if righteous, I dare not hold up my head,
sated with shame, drenched in affliction!
16 Should it lift up, you hunt me like a lion: ^job-10-16
repeatedly you show your wondrous power against me,
17 You renew your attack upon me ^job-10-17
and multiply your harassment of me;
in waves your troops come against me.
18 Why then did you bring me forth from the womb? ^job-10-18
I should have died and no eye have seen me.
19 I should be as though I had never lived; ^job-10-19
I should have been taken from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not my days few? Stop! ^job-10-20
Let me alone, that I may recover a little
21 Before I go whence I shall not return, ^job-10-21
to the land of darkness and of gloom,
22 The dark, disordered land ^job-10-22
where darkness is the only light.
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\* (10:1) I loathe my life: these words complete the thought of [9:35].
\* (10:3] – [12) These lines are a delicate mixture of sarcasm and prayer; Job “reminds” God, challenging the divine providence. Note the piteous tone of the final request in vv. [20] – [22].
\* (10:17) Attack: or “witnesses,” continuing the metaphor of lawsuit used in these chapters.
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a. (10:1) [Jb 9:21].
b. (10:5) [Jb 36:26].
c. (10:7) [Jb 2:3], [9]; [Dt 32:39]; [Wis 16:15].
d. (10:9) [Jb 4:19]; [33:6]; [Gn 2:7]; [3:19]; [Ps 146:4].
e. (10:18) [Jb 3:3], [11].
f. (10:21) [Jb 7:9] – [10]; [16:22].
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_New American Bible, revised edition_ (2010, 1991, 1986, 1970) Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C.
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