Job 3:1-26
3 It was after this that Job began to speak and to curse the day of his birth.*+
2 Job said:
3 “Let the day perish on which I was born,+Also the night when someone said: ‘A man has been conceived!’
4 Let that day be darkness.
Let God above show no concern for it;Let no light shine upon it.
5 Let the deepest darkness* reclaim it.
Let a rain cloud settle over it.
Let whatever darkens the day terrify it.
6 That night—let the gloom seize it;+Let it not rejoice among the days of a year,And let it not enter among the number of the months.
7 Indeed! Let that night become barren;Let no joyful cry be heard in it.
8 Let those who curse the day put a curse on it,Those who are able to awaken Le·viʹa·than.*+
9 Let the stars of its twilight grow dark;Let it wait in vain for daylight,And let it not see the rays of dawn.
10 For it did not close the doors of my mother’s womb;+Nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
11 Why did I not die at birth?
Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?+
12 Why were there knees to receive meAnd breasts to nurse me?
13 For now I would be lying down undisturbed;+I would be sleeping and at rest+
14 With kings of the earth and their advisers,Who built for themselves places that are now in ruins,*
15 Or with princes who possessed gold,Whose houses were filled with silver.
16 Or why was I not like a hidden miscarriage,Like children who have never seen the light?
17 There even the wicked have ceased from agitation;There the weary are at rest.+
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;They do not hear the voice of the one forcing them to work.
19 Small and great are the same there,+And the slave is set free from his master.
20 Why does he give light to one who is sufferingAnd life to those in bitter distress?*+
21 Why do they long for death, but it does not come?+
They dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22 Those who are rejoicing greatly,Who are happy when they find the grave.
23 Why does he give light to a man who has lost his way,Whom God has hedged in?+
24 For in place of my food comes my sighing,+And my groaning+ pours out like water.
25 For what I have dreaded has come upon me,And what I have feared has befallen me.
26 I have had no peace, no quiet, no rest,But trouble keeps coming.”
Footnotes
^ Lit., “curse his day.”
^ Or “darkness and death’s shadow.”
^ Understood to refer to the crocodile or some other large, powerful aquatic animal.
^ Or possibly, “who built desolate places for themselves.”
^ Or “those bitter of soul.”