Job 3

Job Curses His Birth

3After seven days Job cried out and cursed the day he had been born, ²saying:

³“Let the day I was born be destroyed,

and the night it was said, ‘A boy is born!’

⁴Let that day turn to darkness.

Don’t let God care about it.

Don’t let light shine on it.

⁵Let darkness and gloom have that day.

Let a cloud hide it.

Let thick darkness cover its light.

⁶Let thick darkness capture that night.

Don’t count it among the days of the year

or put it in any of the months.

⁷Let that night be empty,

with no shout of joy to be heard.

⁸Let those who curse days curse that day.

Let them prepare to wake up the sea monster Leviathan.

⁹Let that day’s morning stars never appear;

let it wait for daylight that never comes.

Don’t let it see the first light of dawn,

¹⁰because it allowed me to be born

and did not hide trouble from my eyes.

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

Why didn’t I die when I came out of the womb?

¹²Why did my mother’s knees receive me,

and my mother’s breasts feed me?

¹³If they had not been there,

I would be lying dead in peace;

I would be asleep and at rest

¹⁴with kings and wise men of the earth

who built places for themselves that are now ruined.

¹⁵I would be asleep with rulers

who filled their houses with gold and silver.

¹⁶Why was I not buried like a child born dead,

like a baby who never saw the light of day?

¹⁷In the grave the wicked stop making trouble,

and the weary workers are at rest.

¹⁸In the grave there is rest for the captives

who no longer hear the shout of the slave driver.

¹⁹People great and small are in the grave,

and the slave is freed from his master.

²⁰“Why is light given to those in misery?

Why is life given to those who are so unhappy?

²¹They want to die, but death does not come.

They search for death more than for hidden treasure.

²²They are very happy

when they get to the grave.

²³They cannot see where they are going.

God has hidden the road ahead.

²⁴I make sad sounds as I eat;

my groans pour out like water.

²⁵Everything I feared and dreaded

has happened to me.

²⁶I have no peace or quietness.

I have no rest, only trouble.”