Job 10
10
To Find Some Skeleton in My Closet
1“I can’t stand my life—I hate it!
I’m putting it all out on the table,
all the bitterness of my life—I’m holding back nothing.”
2-7Job prayed:
“Here’s what I want to say:
Don’t, God, bring in a verdict of guilty
without letting me know the charges you’re bringing.
How does this fit into what you once called ‘good’—
giving me a hard time, spurning me,
a life you shaped by your very own hands,
and then blessing the plots of the wicked?
You don’t look at things the way we mortals do.
You’re not taken in by appearances, are you?
Unlike us, you’re not working against a deadline.
You have all eternity to work things out.
So what’s this all about, anyway—this compulsion
to dig up some dirt, to find some skeleton in my closet?
You know good and well I’m not guilty.
You also know no one can help me.
8-12“You made me like a handcrafted piece of pottery—
and now are you going to smash me to pieces?
Don’t you remember how beautifully you worked my clay?
Will you reduce me now to a mud pie?
Oh, that marvel of conception as you stirred together
semen and ovum—
What a miracle of skin and bone,
muscle and brain!
You gave me life itself, and incredible love.
You watched and guarded every breath I took.
13-17“But you never told me about this part.
I should have known that there was more to it—
That if I so much as missed a step, you’d notice and pounce,
wouldn’t let me get by with a thing.
If I’m truly guilty, I’m doomed.
But if I’m innocent, it’s no better—I’m still doomed.
My belly is full of bitterness.
I’m up to my ears in a swamp of affliction.
I try to make the best of it, try to brave it out,
but you’re too much for me,
relentless, like a lion on the prowl.
You line up fresh witnesses against me.
You compound your anger
and pile on the grief and pain!
18-22“So why did you have me born?
I wish no one had ever laid eyes on me!
I wish I’d never lived—a stillborn,
buried without ever having breathed.
Isn’t it time to call it quits on my life?
Can’t you let up, and let me smile just once
Before I die and am buried,
before I’m nailed into my coffin, sealed in the ground,
And banished for good to the land of the dead,
blind in the final dark?”
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Job 10: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Job 10
10
Job: I Would Plead with God
1“My #1 Kin. 19:4; Job 7:16; Jon. 4:3soul loathes my life;
I will give free course to my complaint,
#Job 7:11I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me;
Show me why You contend with me.
3Does it seem good to You that You should oppress,
That You should despise the work of Your hands,
And smile on the counsel of the wicked?
4Do You have eyes of flesh?
Or #(1 Sam. 16:7; Job 28:24; 34:21)do You see as man sees?
5Are Your days like the days of a mortal man?
Are Your years like the days of a mighty man,
6That You should seek for my iniquity
And search out my sin,
7Although You know that I am not wicked,
And there is no one who can deliver from Your hand?
8‘Your#Job 10:3; Ps. 119:73 hands have made me and fashioned me,
An intricate unity;
Yet You would #(Job 9:22)destroy me.
9Remember, I pray, #Gen. 2:7; Job 33:6that You have made me like clay.
And will You turn me into dust again?
10#(Ps. 139:14–16)Did You not pour me out like milk,
And curdle me like cheese,
11Clothe me with skin and flesh,
And knit me together with bones and sinews?
12You have granted me life and favor,
And Your care has preserved my spirit.
13‘And these things You have hidden in Your heart;
I know that this was with You:
14If I sin, then #Job 7:20; Ps. 139:1You mark me,
And will not acquit me of my iniquity.
15If I am wicked, #Job 10:7; Is. 3:11woe to me;
#(Job 9:12, 15)Even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head.
I am full of disgrace;
#Ps. 25:18See my misery!
16If my head is exalted,
#Is. 38:13; Lam. 3:10; Hos. 13:7You hunt me like a fierce lion,
And again You show Yourself awesome against me.
17You renew Your witnesses against me,
And increase Your indignation toward me;
Changes and war are ever with me.
18‘Why#Job 3:11–13 then have You brought me out of the womb?
Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me!
19I would have been as though I had not been.
I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20#Ps. 39:5Are not my days few?
Cease! #Job 7:16, 19Leave me alone, that I may take a little comfort,
21Before I go to the place from which I shall not return,
#Ps. 88:12To the land of darkness #Ps. 23:4and the shadow of death,
22A land as dark as darkness itself,
As the shadow of death, without any order,
Where even the light is like darkness.’ ”
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.