Job 10
What Happens in This Chapter
Job keeps speaking, but now he talks straight to God. He says he is tired of living, and he asks God to tell him what he has done wrong. He reminds God that God made him with care, like a potter shaping clay, and he asks why God would now break what He made. Job ends by wishing he had never been born, and asking God to leave him alone for the few days he has left.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
1I am tired of my own life. I will let my complaint pour out. I will speak from my sad, bitter heart.
2I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
2I will say to God: Please do not call me guilty. Tell me why you are fighting against me.
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?
3Does it make you glad to hurt me? I am the work of your own hands. Do you throw me away and smile on the plans of bad people?
4Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?
4Do you have eyes made of flesh, like mine? Do you see things the way people see them?
5Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man’s days,
5Are your days short, like the days of a person? Are your years like a man's years?
6That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?
6Is that why you keep hunting for something wrong in me? Is that why you search for my sin?
7Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.
7You already know that I am not guilty. And no one can pull me out of your hand.
8Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.
8Your hands made me. You shaped every part of me. And now will you destroy me?
9Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?
9Please remember that you shaped me like clay. Will you now turn me back into dust?
10Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?
10Did you not pour me out like milk? Did you not make me firm, the way milk turns into cheese?
Job is picturing how a baby is formed and grows before it is born. Milk turning into cheese is his way of saying that something soft became firm and whole.
11Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
11You put skin and flesh on me. You wove me together with bones and strong cords.
12Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.
12You gave me life and treated me with kindness. Your care kept me alive.
13And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee.
13But you were hiding something in your heart. I know this was your plan all along.
14If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
14If I sinned, you would be watching. You would not let it pass.
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;
15If I am guilty, then things are very bad for me. Even if I have done right, I cannot hold my head up. I am full of shame, and I see how much I hurt.
16For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.
16If I did lift my head, you would hunt me like a lion. You would show your great power against me again.
17Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.
17You keep bringing new people to speak against me. You grow more and more angry with me. Trouble hits me like waves, over and over.
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!
18So why did you ever let me be born? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.
The King James Bible says "given up the ghost." That is an old way of saying "died." It is not about ghosts.
19I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
19Then it would be as if I had never lived. I would have gone straight from birth to the grave.
20Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,
20My days are few, aren't they? So stop, and leave me alone. Let me have a little comfort.
21Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
21Soon I will go to the place no one returns from. It is a land of darkness and deep shadow.
"The shadow of death" is an old phrase for very deep darkness, like a place where no light gets in.
22A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.
22It is a land as black as the darkest night. It is deep shadow, with nothing in order. Even the light there is like darkness.
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