Job 3

Job Regrets His Birth

3Afterward^a Job opened his mouth and cursed^b his day. ²Thus^c Job spoke up^d and said,

³“Let the day perish on which I was born,

and the night that said, ‘A man-child is conceived.’

⁴Let that day become^e darkness;

may God not seek it from above,

nor may daylight shine on it.

⁵Let darkness and deep shadow claim it;

let clouds^f settle on it;

let them^g terrify it with the blackness^h of day.

⁶Let darkness seize that night;ⁱ

let it not rejoice among the days of the year;

let it not enter among the number of the months.

⁷Look, let that night become^j barren;

let a joyful song not enter it.

⁸Let those who curse the day curse it,

those who are skilled at rousing Leviathan.

⁹Let the stars of its dawn be dark;

let it hope for light but^k there be none,

and let it not see the eyelids of dawn

¹⁰because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,

nor^l did it hide trouble from my eyes.

Job Wishes He Had Died

¹¹“Why did I not die at^m birth?

Why did I not come forth from the womb and expire?

¹²Why did the knees receive me

and the breasts, that I could suck?

¹³For now I would lie down, and I would be at peace;

I would be asleep; then I would be at restⁿ

¹⁴with kings and counselors of the earth,

who rebuild ^o ruins for themselves,

¹⁵or with high officials who have gold,^p

who fill up their houses with silver.

¹⁶Or why was I not hidden like a miscarriage,

like infants who did not see the light?

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling,

and there the weary^q are at rest;

¹⁸the prisoners are at ease together;

they do not hear the oppressor’s voice.

¹⁹The small and the great are there,

and the slave is free from his masters.^r

Job Wishes He Might Die

²⁰“Why does he^s give light to one in misery

and life to those bitter of soul,

²¹who wait for death, but^t it does not come,^u

and search^v for it more than for treasures,

²²who rejoice exceedingly,^w

and they are glad when they find the grave?

²³Why does he^x give light to a man whose way is hidden,

and God has fenced him in all around?

²⁴For^y my sighing comes before^z my bread,^a

and my groanings gush forth like water

²⁵because the dread that I feel^b has come upon me,

and what I feared befalls me.

²⁶I am not at ease, and I am not at peace,

and I do not have rest, thus^c turmoil has come.”