Job 10

My soul bursts asunder with weariness of being detained in the cords of natural life. I will therefore permit my complaints to vent themselves freely, be the issue what it will. I will speak fervently in the bitter anguish of my soul

Job 10:2

I will say to God, Do not condemn and punish me as a wicked man, but cause me to know for what sin or reason I am so peculiarly afflicted, G G 3. Is it either pleasant, profitable, or honourable, to thee, or is it just and equal, that thou shouldest spoil me of all I had, and thus load me with tormenting troubles? or that, with an enraged mind, thou shouldest contemn the work of thine hands as good for nothing but to be a spectacle of misery? or that, by thy providential dispensations, thou shouldest appear to confirm the thoughts, or encourage the practices, of the wicked?

Job 10:4-6

Are thy views of my conduct and state short-sighted, biassed, or malignant? Are thy days so short that thou must punish me in this sudden and severe manner all at once? Are thy researches after truth tedious, that thou shouldest thus by tortures attempt to force a confession of guilt from me?

Job 10:7

Thou canst not but know that I am no hypocrite, and that if thou punish none can deliver me from thy judgments

Job 10:8

By thy creating power I have been curiously and elaborately bound together with sinews; bound together in my whole frame: and wilt thou, as a raging lion, utterly tear me asunder, and swallow me up?

Job 10:9

Remember that thou, as my Potter, hast formed me out of the clay; and wilt thou, in this sudden and fearful manner, so quickly reduce me to dust by death?

Job 10:10

Didst thou not, in the womb, purify my substance as milk, and curdle and compact the liquid matter of which my body was framed?

Job 10:11

Didst thou not cover my inward parts with skin and flesh, and curiously fence and weave me together with bones and sinews?

Job 10:12

Didst thou not grant me the entrance and continuance of life? And hath not thy providential care and kindness preserved me from dangers and death?

Job 10:13

And, notwithstanding, hadst thou a secret purpose thus to afflict me?—I find, by experience, that it was then determined with thee

Job 10:14

That, if I should sin, thou wouldest watch over me to punish me, without the least patience, pardon, or pity

Job 10:15

That, if I should be wicked, fearful judgments should fall upon me; and, though I should live holy and innocent, I should nevertheless be oppressed with trouble. I am full of confusion and shame, on account of my uncommon circumstances; therefore look with pity on my inexpressible misery

Job 10:16

Shall my trouble still increase, and exalt itself over me? Wilt thou follow me close with plagues, as a fierce lion hunteth his prey? Wilt thou, by repeated strokes of vengeance, set me up as a distinguished spectacle of thy marvellous power and wrath to all around me?

Job 10:17

Wilt thou bring fresh plagues upon me, as witnesses of thy continued displeasure? Wilt thou still afflict me more and more? Shall nothing but divers forms and multitudes of trouble assault me?

Job 10:18

Why then didst thou bring me out of the womb at all? Why did not I die in the womb, without ever being seen on this wretched earth?

Job 10:19

Or die in the birth, that I might have been carried from the womb to the grave?

Job 10:20

Shall not the momentary duration of my life quickly cease? Shall I not then be allowed a short reprieve from trouble. 21, 22. Before I go to the dark region of the grave, where there is no orderly succession of day and night, summer and winter, labour and rest, but one perpetual night of gross darkness?

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. X.—To be weary of life, before God send us our discharge, is to be unfaithful to the post which he hath given us to maintain. In suffering times we should inquire into their cause, that we may answer their end; and chiefly plead for the removal of our sin, and of the condemnation on account of it. But those, who are awed by the majesty of God, often attempt easing their mind in sinful resentments. And under extraordinary troubles it is hard to forbear impeaching the goodness or equity of God by sinful murmurings. The most humble prayers are often mingled with the most peevish and proud expostulations. Neither the views of his omniscient discernment of all our sins, nor the almighty power of his correcting hand, can awe our souls into quiet submission. Nothing but the largest supplies of grace can bridle the tongue in such a case. But, when God hides himself as a Saviour, his work, as a Maker and Preserver, should lead us to admiration and thankfulness. When he changes his way towards us we are to believe that he hath reasons hid for it in his heart, which will be shortly manifested. Alas! how sin stares the heat of men in the face when God lays them under heavy troubles! Happy are they whose iniquities are pardoned, and in whom the fruit of afflictions is to take away the sin that procured them. But if sins be great, troubles heavy, life and its comforts short, death and its darkness near, let us give ourselves unto prayer. Every trouble is a call from God; and every moment of reprieve from death is an opportunity to prepare for it