1 My soule is cut off though I liue: I wil leaue my complaint vpon my selfe, & wil speake in the bitternesse of my soule.
2 I will say vnto God, Condemne mee not: shew me, wherefore thou contendest with mee.
3 Thinkest thou it good to oppresse me, and to cast off the labour of thine handes, and to fauour the counsel of the wicked?
4 Hast thou carnall eyes? Or doest thou see as man seeth?
5 Are thy dayes as mans dayes? Or thy yeres, as the time of man,
6 That thou inquirest of mine iniquitie, and searchest out my sinne?
7 Thou knowest that I can not do wickedly: for none can deliuer me out of thine hand.
8 Thine handes haue made me, and fashioned mee wholy rounde about, and wilt thou destroy me?
9 Remeber, I pray thee, that thou hast made me as the clay, and wilt thou bring me into dust againe?
10 Hast thou not powred me out as milke? & turned me to cruds like cheese?
11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and ioyned me together with bones and sinewes.
12 Thou hast giuen me life, & grace: & thy visitation hath preserued my spirit.
13 Though thou hast hid these things in thine heart, yet I knowe that it is so with thee.
14 If I haue sinned, then thou wilt streightly looke vnto me, and wilt not holde mee giltlesse of mine iniquitie.
15 If I haue done wickedly, wo vnto me: if I haue done righteously, I will not lift vp mine head, being full of confusion, because I see mine affliction.
16 But let it increase: hunt thou me as a lyon: returne and shew thy selfe marueilous vpon me.
17 Thou renuest thy plagues against me, and thou increasest thy wrath against me: changes and armies of sorowes are against me.
18 Wherfore then hast thou brought me out of the wombe? Oh that I had perished, and that none eye had seene me!
19 And that I were as I had not bene, but brought from the wombe to the graue!
20 Are not my dayes fewe? let him cease, and leaue off from me, that I may take a litle comfort,
21 Before I goe and shall not returne, euen to the land of darkenesse and shadow of death:
22 Into a land, I say, darke as darknes it selfe, and into the shadow of death, where is none order, but the light is there as darkenesse.