1 "My soul is weary of my life.
I will give free course to my complaint.
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me.
Show me why you contend with me.
3 Is it good to you that you should oppress,
that you should despise the work of your hands,
and smile on the counsel of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh?
Or do you see as man sees?
5 Are your days as the days of mortals,
or your years as man’s years,
6 that you inquire after my iniquity,
and search after my sin?
7 Although you know that I am not wicked,
there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.
8 "‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether,
yet you destroy me.
9 Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay.
Will you bring me into dust again?
10 Haven’t you poured me out like milk,
and curdled me like cheese?
11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh,
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and loving kindness.
Your visitation has preserved my spirit.
13 Yet you hid these things in your heart.
I know that this is with you:
14 if I sin, then you mark me.
You will not acquit me from my iniquity.
15 If I am wicked, woe to me.
If I am righteous, I still will not lift up my head,
being filled with disgrace,
and conscious of my affliction.
16 If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion.
Again you show yourself powerful to me.
17 You renew your witnesses against me,
and increase your indignation on me.
Changes and warfare are with me.
18 "‘Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb?
I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.
19 I should have been as though I had not been.
I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Aren’t my days few?
Stop!
Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,
21 before I go where I will not return from,
to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;
22 the land dark as midnight,
of the shadow of death,
without any order,
where the light is as midnight.’"
1 Ek walg van my lewe; ek wil my geklaag die vrye loop gee; ek wil spreek in die bitterheid van my siel.
2 Ek sê tot God: Veroordeel my nie; laat my weet waarom U met my twis.
3 Is dit voordeel vir U dat U verdruk; dat U die arbeid van u hande verwerp, terwyl U oor die planne van die goddelose lig laat skyn?
4 Het U vleeslike oë? Of sien U soos 'n mens sien?
5 Is u dae soos die dae van 'n mens, of u jare soos die dae van 'n man?
6 dat U soek na my ongeregtigheid en vra na my sonde,
7 ofskoon U weet dat ek nie skuldig is nie en dat daar niemand is wat uit u hand kan red nie?
8 U hande het my geformeer en my gemaak, heeltemal rondom; en U vernietig my!
9 Bedink tog dat U my soos klei gevorm het, en wil U my tot stof laat terugkeer?
10 Het U my nie soos melk uitgegiet en my soos kaas laat dik word nie?
11 Met vel en vlees het U my beklee, en met beendere en senings het U my deurvleg.
12 Die lewe, ja, guns het U aan my bewys, en u sorg het my gees bewaak.
13 Maar daarby het U d¡t verberg in u hart, ek weet dat d¡t u toeleg was:
14 As ek gesondig het, sou U my waarneem en my nie vryspreek van my ongeregtigheid nie.
15 Was ek skuldig -- wee my! En was ek regverdig, ek sou my hoof nie kon ophef nie, sat van skande en bewus van my ellende.
16 En as my hoof hom ophef, sou U my jaag soos 'n leeu en U opnuut wonderbaarlik teenoor my gedra.
17 U sou altyd nuwe getuies teen my bring en u grimmigheid teen my vermeerder -- altyd nuwe leërafdelings teen my!
18 Waarom tog het U my uit die moederskoot laat uitgaan? Ek moes gesterf het sonder dat 'n oog my gesien het.
19 Ek moes gewees het of ek daar nie was nie; van die moederskoot af moes ek na die graf gedra gewees het.
20 Is my dae nie min nie? Laat Hy ophou, my laat staan, dat ek 'n bietjie vrolik kan wees,
21 voordat ek heengaan -- en nie terugkom nie -- na die land van duisternis en doodskaduwee,
22 'n land van donkerheid, soos middernag, van doodskaduwee en wanorde, en dit gee 'n skynsel -- soos middernag!