Job 3:11–26

Why Did I Survive at Birth?

¹¹“Why didn’t I die as soon as I was born 

and breathe my last breath when I came out of the womb? 

¹²Why did knees welcome me? 

Why did breasts let me nurse? 

¹³Instead of being alive, 

I would now be quietly lying down. 

I would now be sleeping peacefully. 

¹⁴I would be with the kings and the counselors of the world 

who built for themselves ⸤what are now⸥ ruins. 

¹⁵I would be with princes 

who had gold, 

who filled their homes with silver. 

¹⁶I would be buried like a stillborn baby. 

I would not exist. 

I would be like infants who never saw the light. 

¹⁷There the wicked stop their raging. 

There the weary are able to rest. 

¹⁸There the captives have no troubles at all. 

There they do not hear the shouting of the slave driver. 

¹⁹There ⸤you find⸥ both the unimportant and important people. 

There the slave is free from his master. 

Why Do I Go on Living?

²⁰“Why give light to one in misery 

and life to those who find it so bitter, 

²¹to those who long for death but it never comes— 

though they dig for it more than for buried treasure? 

²²They are ecstatic, 

delighted to find the grave. 

²³Why give light to those whose paths have been hidden, 

to those whom God has fenced in? 

²⁴“When my food is in front of me, I sigh. 

I pour out my groaning like water. 

²⁵What I fear most overtakes me. 

What I dread happens to me. 

²⁶I have no peace! 

I have no quiet! 

I have no rest! 

And trouble keeps coming!”