Thomson(i)
1 Weary of my life I would pour forth with groans my words before him: oppressed as I am I would speak in the bitterness of my soul,
2 and say to the Lord, Teach me not to be impious. Now, for what cause hast thou thus condemned me?
3 Is it agreeable to thee that I should commit iniquity; seeing thou hast rejected the works of thy hands; and favoured the counsel of the wicked?
4 As a mortal looketh dost thou look down? Or as a man looketh wilt thou behold?
5 Are thy days as the days of a mortal; or thy years, the years of a man;
6 that thou hast sought out mine iniquity, and diligently traced my sins?
7 For thou knowest that I am not impious: but who can deliver out of thy hands?
8 Thy hands have fashioned me and made me. After that thou hast changed thy mind and smitten me.
9 Remember that thou hast made me of clay, and art turning me again into mould.
10 Hast thou not churned me as milk, and curdled me as cheese;
11 and clothed me with skin and flesh; and fenced me with bones and sinews,
12 and granted me life and favour, and by thy visitation preserved my spirit?
13 As thou hast these things in thyself; I know that thou canst do all things, and that with thee nothing is impossible.
14 If I indeed have sinned inadvertently, thou hast me in custody, and hast not acquitted me of transgression.
15 If I indeed am impious, Woe is me.
16 And if I be righteous, I cannot hold up my head, for I am full of ignominy. For I am hunted as a lion for slaughter. For turning again furiously thou destroyest me.
17 Renewing the examination against me, thou hast exercised against me great wrath; and hast brought against me tortures.
18 Why then didst thou bring me forth from the womb? And why did I not die without an eye seeing me;
19 and become as if I never had existed? Why was I not carried from the womb to the grave?
20 Is not the term of my life of short duration? permit me to enjoy a little repose:
21 before I go, whence I shall not return;
22 to a land dark and gloomy; to a land of everlasting darkness; where there is no light; no seeing the life of mortals.