“Watcher of Men”

Composed by Sinéad O'Connor/Tomlinson

2 versions

Lyrics

	Why did I not die at birth,
	Expire as I came from the womb?
	Why were there knees to receive me,
	Or breasts to feed me?
	Why was I not like babies
	Who never saw the light,
	Who lie with kings and counsellors,
	Who rebuild ruins for themselves?

	And where rest
	Those whose strength is spent,
	Where small and great are alike
	And the slave is free of his master?

	Oh, watcher of men,
	Do U have eyes of flesh?
	Is your vision like man?
	Are your years the years of man?
	U know that I'm not guilty,
	And that none can deliver from your hand.

	Also U know that U have deeply wronged me, oh,
	And U have fenced me in.
	You made it so nobody knows me,
	And I'm an outsider to them.

	When I accused U, U wouldn't speak.
	I said U tore up my hope like a tree.
	But I spoke without understanding
	Of things beyond me, which I did not know.
	And now I've heard U with my ears
	And I've seen U with my eyes;
	Therefore I recant and relent,
	Being but dust and ashes.

Notes

Why did I not die at birth:

(Job 3.11, KJV) "Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? (12) Why did the knees prevent me? Or why the breasts that I should suck? (13) For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, (14) With kings and counsellors of the earth, which build desolate places for themselves."

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