Job 10

I am sick of my own life. So I will let my complaint pour out. I will speak out of the bitterness inside me.

1My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

Note"Soul" in Hebrew (nephesh) means the whole living self, a person's life and appetite, not a spirit part housed inside the body. "My soul is weary of my life" is closer to "I am sick of being alive." "Complaint" is also stronger than it sounds: the Hebrew word covers a formal grievance, the kind of statement a wronged person lays out in public.

2I will say to God: Do not declare me guilty. Tell me what charge you are bringing against me.

2I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.

Note"Contend" is KJV legal language: to bring a case against someone in court. From here to the end of the chapter Job speaks as if he were a defendant, asking to be told the charge, denying guilt, complaining of witnesses stacked against him, and asking for acquittal.

3Does it please you to crush me, to throw away the work of your own hands, while you smile on the plans of wicked people?

3Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?

Note"Shine upon" translates a Hebrew idiom about the light of a person's face. A face turned toward you and lit up means favor and approval; a face turned away or darkened means rejection. Job is accusing God of beaming approval on the schemes of the wicked while crushing him.

4Do you have human eyes? Do you see things the limited way a person sees them?

4Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?

Note"Eyes of flesh" means human eyes, limited ones, that can only see the surface and have to investigate to find out what is true.

5Are your days as short as a human being's days? Are your years like the days of a man,

5Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man’s days,

6so that you have to go hunting for something I did wrong, and search around for my sin?

6That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?

7You already know that I am not guilty, and that no one can rescue anyone out of your hand.

7Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

8Your hands shaped me and put every part of me together. And now you turn and destroy me.

8Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.

9Please remember that you molded me like clay. Are you going to bring me back to dust?

9Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

NoteClay and dust point to the old picture of a human being as something shaped by hand out of earth (as in Genesis 2), which then crumbles back into earth at death. "Return to dust" was ordinary language for dying and being buried.

10Didn't you pour me out like milk, and thicken me like cheese being made?

10Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

NoteThis describes conception and pregnancy in the physical terms people then used for it: the father's seed poured out like milk, and the child thickening and taking solid form in the womb as milk sets into cheese.

11You dressed me in skin and flesh, and wove me together with bones and tendons.

11Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.

Note"Fenced" in 1611 English meant framed or braced, built up with a supporting structure, not shut off behind a fence. "Sinews" are tendons. The picture is of a body assembled by a craftsman: a frame of bone and tendon, then a covering of flesh and skin over it.

12You gave me life, and you were kind to me. Your watchful care kept me alive.

12Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.

Note"Visitation" in 1611 English meant God's active attention to a person, his oversight and care, not a social call. The word behind "favour" (hesed) means committed, loyal kindness of the sort owed inside a close relationship, not a passing good mood.

13But all along you were hiding this plan in your heart. I know this is what you intended:

13And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee.

NoteIn Hebrew the heart is where a person thinks, decides and plans, not just where they feel. "Hid in thine heart" means kept a hidden intention in mind all along.

14that if I sinned, you would be watching, and you would not let me off for what I had done wrong.

14If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.

15If I am guilty, I am in trouble. And even if I am innocent, I still cannot lift my head. I am filled with shame, and I see clearly how much I suffer.

15If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

Note"Lift up my head" is an idiom for holding yourself upright in public, the bearing of someone with nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to fear. A bowed head belongs to the disgraced. "Confusion" in 1611 English meant disgrace and humiliation, not muddled thinking.

16And it keeps getting worse. You hunt me down like a lion on the attack, and again you show your terrible power against me.

16For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.

NoteThe Hebrew here is uncertain and translations split. The KJV reads the end of verse 15 and the start of 16 as "look at my affliction, for it keeps growing"; others read it as "and if I did lift my head high, you would hunt me like a lion." Both are possible readings of the same consonants. "Marvellous" in 1611 English meant astonishing or awe-inspiring, here, a terrifying display of power, not something delightful.

17You bring in fresh witnesses to testify against me. Your anger toward me grows. Wave after wave of trouble comes at me like an army.

17Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.

Note"Renewest thy witnesses" continues the courtroom picture: fresh witnesses are produced against Job each time the last ones are used up. The last phrase is obscure in Hebrew; "changes and war" most likely refers to relays of soldiers, fresh troops replacing tired ones so the attack never lets up.

18So why did you ever bring me out of my mother's body? I wish I had died before anyone ever laid eyes on me.

18Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!

Note"Given up the ghost" is 1611 English for breathing one's last, i.e. dying. It has nothing to do with ghosts; "ghost" here means breath or life.

19It would be as if I had never existed. I would have been carried straight from the womb to the grave.

19I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

20Aren't my days few enough already? So stop. Turn away from me, and let me have a little relief,

20Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

21before I go to the place no one comes back from, to the land of darkness and deep shadow.

21Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

Note"The land of darkness" is Sheol, the underworld where the dead were thought to go, all of them, good and bad alike. It is a place of silence and shadow, not a place of punishment. "Shadow of death" translates a Hebrew word meaning the very deepest darkness; the KJV wording comes from reading it as a compound of "shadow" and "death."

22It is a land of total blackness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.

22A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

Note"Without any order" means the place has no arrangement or structure at all, the opposite of the ordered, distinguishable world of the living, where light and dark are separate things.