Job Continues: A Plea to God

Job 10

1 "I u loathe my life;
I will give free utterance to my v complaint;
I will speak in w the bitterness of my soul.
 2 I will say to God, Do not x condemn me;
let me know why you y contend against me.
 3 z Does it seem good to you to oppress,
to despise a the work of your hands
b and favor the designs of the wicked?
 4 Have you c eyes of flesh?
d Do you see as man sees?
 5 Are your days as the days of man,
or your e years as a man's years,
 6 that you f seek out my iniquity
and search for my sin,
 7 although you g know that I am not guilty,
and there is h none to deliver out of your hand?
 8 i Your hands fashioned and made me,
and now you have destroyed me altogether.
 9 Remember that you have made me like j clay;
and will you return me to the k dust?
 10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
 11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
 12 You have granted me life and steadfast love,
and your care has preserved my spirit.
 13 Yet these things you hid in your heart;
I know that l this was your purpose.
 14 If I sin, you m watch me
and do not n acquit me of my iniquity.
 15 o If I am guilty, woe to me!
If I am p in the right, I cannot lift up my head,
for I am filled with disgrace
and q look on my affliction.
 16 And were my head lifted up, 1 you would hunt me like r a lion
and again work s wonders against me.
 17 You renew your t witnesses against me
and increase your vexation toward me;
you u bring fresh troops against me.

18 v "Why did you bring me out from the womb?
Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
 19 w and were as though I had not been,
carried from the womb to the grave.
 20 x Are not my days few?
y Then cease, and leave me alone, z that I may find a little cheer
 21 before I go - and a I shall not return -
to the land of b darkness and c deep shadow,
 22 the land of gloom like thick darkness,
like deep shadow without any order,
where light is as thick darkness."

  1. Cross References
    Job 7:16
    I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
    Job 9:21
    I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life.
    Numbers 11:15
    If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.
    1 Kings 19:4
    But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.
  2. Cross References
    Job 21:4
    As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient?
    Job 23:2
    Today also my complaint is bitter; my hand is heavy on account of my groaning.
  3. Cross References
    Job 7:11
    Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
  4. Cross References
    Job 9:29
    I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?
  5. Cross References
    Job 9:3
    If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
  6. Cross References
    Job 13:9
    Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man?
    Psalms 89:38
    But now you have cast off and rejected; you are full of wrath against your anointed.
  7. Cross References
    Job 14:15
    You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.
    Psalms 138:8
    The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.
    Isaiah 64:8
    But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
  8. Cross References
    Job 9:24
    The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges - if it is not he, who then is it?
  9. Cross References
    John 8:15
    You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.
  10. Cross References
    1 Samuel 16:7
    But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
  11. Cross References
    Job 36:26
    Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.
    Psalms 77:10
    Then I said, "I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.
    Psalms 90:4
    For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
    2 Peter 3:8
    But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
  12. Cross References
    Job 14:16
    For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin.
  13. Cross References
    Job 2:3
    And the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.
    Job 2:9
    Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.
  14. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 32:39
    'See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
    Isaiah 43:13
    Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?
  15. Cross References
    Psalms 119:73
    Your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
  16. Cross References
    Job 4:17
    Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?
  17. Cross References
    Job 34:15
    All flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.
    Genesis 2:7
    Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
    Genesis 3:19
    By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
    Psalms 146:4
    When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.
    Ecclesiastes 12:7
    And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
  18. Cross References
    Job 23:14
    For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind.
    Job 27:11
    I will teach you concerning the hand of God; what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.
  19. Cross References
    Job 13:27
    You put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths; you set a limit for the soles of my feet.
    Job 33:11
    He puts my feet in the stocks and watches all my paths.
    Psalms 130:3
    If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
  20. Cross References
    Job 9:28
    I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.
  21. Cross References
    Isaiah 3:11
    Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.
  22. Cross References
    Job 9:15
    Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
  23. Cross References
    Psalms 25:18
    Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
  24. Cross References
    Job 28:8
    The proud beasts have not trodden it; the lion has not passed over it.
    Hosea 5:14
    For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.
    Hosea 13:7
    So I am to them like a lion; like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
    Isaiah 38:13
    I calmed myself until morning; like a lion he breaks all my bones; from day to night you bring me to an end.
  25. Cross References
    Job 5:9
    Who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number:
  26. Cross References
    Job 16:8
    And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face.
    Ruth 1:21
    I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?
  27. Cross References
    Job 19:12
    His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
  28. Cross References
    Job 3:11
    Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?
    Job 3:3
    "Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, 'A man is conceived.'
  29. Cross References
    Obadiah 1:16
    For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been.
  30. Cross References
    Job 14:1
    Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.
  31. Cross References
    Job 7:16
    I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
  32. Cross References
    Job 9:27
    If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer.
    Psalms 39:13
    Look away from me, that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more!
  33. Cross References
    Job 16:22
    For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
    2 Samuel 12:23
    But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.
  34. Cross References
    Job 30:26
    But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came.
    Psalms 88:12
    Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
  35. Cross References
    Job 3:5
    Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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