Chapter 3

Job’s Lament

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

2 And 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;

10 Because 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,

14 With akings and with bcounselors of the earth,

Who rebuilt cruins for themselves;

15 Or 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,

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

And dig for it more than for bhidden treasures,

22 Who 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.”