Job: I want to ask God for forgiveness
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“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
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I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.
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Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?
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Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as man sees?
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Are Your days like those of a mortal, or Your years like those of a man,
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that You should seek my iniquity and search out my sin—
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though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
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Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?
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Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?
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Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese?
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You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
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You have granted me life and loving devotion,(a) and Your care has preserved my spirit.
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Yet You concealed these things in Your heart, and I know that this was in Your mind:
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If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
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If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.
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Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.
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You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.
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Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!
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If only I had never come to be, but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
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Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort,
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before I go—never to return— to a land of darkness and gloom,
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to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
Footnotes