it greueth my soule to lyue. Neuerthelesse, now will I put forth my wordes: I wil speake out of the very heuynesse off my soule,

and will saye vnto God: O do not condemne me, but shewe me the cause, wherfore thou iudgest me on this maner.

Thinkest thou it well done, to oppresse me, to cast me of (beinge a worke of thy hondes) and to manteyne the councell of the vngodly?

Hast thou fle?shy eyes then, or doest thou loke as man loketh?

Are thy dayes as the dayes of man, and thy yeares as mans yeares?

that thou makest soch inquisicion for my wickednesse, and searchest out my synne?

where as (notwithstondinge) thou knowest that I am no wicked person, & that there is no man able to delyuer me out of thine honde.

Thy hondes haue made me, & fashioned me alltogether rounde aboute, wilt thou then destroye me sodely?

O remembre (I beseke the) how that thou madest me of the moulde of the earth, and shalt brynge me to earth agayne.

Hast thou not milked me, as it were mylck: and turned me to cruddes like chese?

Thou hast couered me with skynne and flesh, and ioyned me together with bones & synowes.

Thou hast graunted me life, and done me good: and the diligent hede that thou tokest vpon me, hath preserued my sprete.

Though thou hydest these thinges in thine hert, yet am I sure, that thou remembrest the all.

Wherfore didest thou kepe me, when I synned, and hast not clensed me fro myne offence?

Yf I do wickedly, wo is me therfore: Yf I be rightuous, yet darre I not lift vp my heade: so full am I of confucion, and se myne owne misery.

Thou huntest me out (beynge in heuynesse) as it were a Lyon, and troublest me out of measure.

Thou bringest fresh witnesses agaynst me, thy wrath increasest thou vpon me, very many are the plages that I am in.

Wherfore hast thou brought me out of my mothers wombe? O that I had perished, & that no eye had sene me.

Yf they had caried me to my graue, as soone as I was borne, then shulde I be now, as though I had neuer bene.

Shall not my short life come soone to an ende? O holde the fro me, let me alone, that I maye ease myself a litle:

afore I go thyther, from whence I shal not turne agayne: Namely, to that londe of darcknesse & shadowe of death:

yee into that darck clowdy londe & deadly shadowe, where as is no ordre, but terrible feare as in the darcknesse.