Job 3

¹ After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

² Job spoke up and said:

³ Let the day perish on which I was born,
and the night that said, "A man-child is conceived!"

⁴ That day — let it be darkness!
Let God above not seek it out,
and let no light shine upon it.

⁵ Let darkness and deep shadow claim it,
let a cloud mass settle over it,
let the blackness of day terrify it.

⁶ That night — let thick darkness seize it!
Let it not join the days of the year;
let it not enter the count of the months.

⁷ Yes, let that night be barren;
let no joyful cry come into it.

⁸ Let those who curse the day curse it —
those skilled at rousing Leviathan.

⁹ Let the stars of its twilight be darkened;
let it wait for light but have none,
and let it not see the eyelids of dawn.

¹⁰ Because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb,
or hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹ Why did I not die at birth,
come out of the womb and expire?

¹² Why were there knees to receive me,
or breasts for me to nurse?

¹³ For now I would be lying down in quiet;
I would be asleep — then I would be at rest —

¹⁴ with kings and counselors of the earth
who built ruins for themselves,

¹⁵ or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.

¹⁶ Or why was I not hidden like a miscarriage,
like infants who never saw light?

¹⁷ There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at rest.

¹⁸ Prisoners are at ease together;
they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.

¹⁹ Small and great are there alike,
and the slave is free from his master.

²⁰ Why does he give light to the sufferer,
and life to the bitter of soul,

²¹ who wait for death but it does not come,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

²² who rejoice exceedingly
and are glad when they find the grave?

²³ Why give light to a man whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?

²⁴ For my sighing comes instead of my bread,
and my groanings pour out like water.

²⁵ For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me,
and what I dreaded has arrived.

²⁶ I have no ease, I have no quiet,
I have no rest — and turmoil comes.