Job 3

Chapter 3

Job’s Lament

¹Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed ¹the day of his birth.

²And Job ¹said,

³“^aLet the day perish on which I was to be born,

And the night which said, ‘A ¹boy is conceived.’

⁴“May that day be darkness;

Let not God above care for it,

Nor light shine on it.

⁵“Let ^adarkness and black gloom claim it;

Let a cloud settle on it;

Let the blackness of the day terrify it.

⁶“As for that night, let darkness seize it;

Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;

Let it not come into the number of the months.

⁷“Behold, let that night be barren;

Let no joyful shout enter it.

⁸“Let those curse it who curse the day,

Who are ¹prepared to ^arouse Leviathan.

⁹“Let the stars of its twilight be darkened;

Let it wait for light but have none,

And let it not see the ¹breaking dawn;

¹⁰Because it did not shut the opening of my mother’s womb,

Or hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹“^aWhy did I not die ¹at birth,

Come forth from the womb and expire?

¹²“Why did the knees receive me,

And why the breasts, that I should suck?

¹³“For now I ^awould have lain down and been quiet;

I would have slept then, I would have been at rest,

¹⁴With ^akings and with ^bcounselors of the earth,

Who rebuilt ^cruins for themselves;

¹⁵Or with ^aprinces ^bwho had gold,

Who were filling their houses with silver.

¹⁶“Or like a miscarriage which is ¹discarded, I would not be,

As infants that never saw light.

¹⁷“There the wicked cease from raging,

And there the ¹weary are at ^arest.

¹⁸“The prisoners are at ease together;

They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.

¹⁹“The small and the great are there,

And the slave is free from his master.

²⁰“Why is ^alight given to him who suffers,

And life to the bitter of soul,

²¹Who ^1along for death, but there is none,

And dig for it more than for ^bhidden treasures,

²²Who rejoice greatly,

And exult when they find the grave?

²³“Why is light given to a man ^awhose way is hidden,

And whom ^bGod has hedged in?

²⁴“For ^amy groaning comes at the sight of my food,

And ^bmy cries pour out like water.

²⁵“For ^1awhat I fear comes upon me,

And what I dread befalls me.

²⁶“I ^aam not at ease, nor am I quiet,

And I am not at rest, but turmoil comes.”