Job 3
Job’s Lament
1Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2And Job said,
3“Let the day perish on which I was to be born,
And the night which said, ‘A boy is conceived.’
4May that day be darkness;
Let not God above care for it,
Nor light shine on it.
5Let darkness and black gloom claim it;
Let a cloud settle on it;
Let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6As 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.
7Behold, let that night be barren;
Let no joyful shout enter it.
8Let those curse it who curse the day,
Who are prepared to rouse Leviathan.
9Let the stars of its twilight be darkened;
Let it wait for light but have none,
And let it not see the breaking dawn;
10Because it did not shut the opening of my mother’s womb,
Or hide trouble from my eyes.
11“Why did I not die at birth,
Come forth from the womb and expire?
12Why did the knees receive me,
And why the breasts, that I should suck?
13For now I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept then, I would have been at rest,
14With kings and with counselors of the earth,
Who rebuilt ruins for themselves;
15Or with princes who had gold,
Who were filling their houses with silver.
16Or like a miscarriage which is discarded, I would not be,
As infants that never saw light.
17There the wicked cease from raging,
And there the weary are at rest.
18The prisoners are at ease together;
They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19The small and the great are there,
And the slave is free from his master.
20“Why is light given to him who suffers,
And life to the bitter of soul,
21Who long for death, but there is none,
And dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22Who rejoice greatly,
And exult when they find the grave?
23Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
And whom God has hedged in?
24For my groaning comes at the sight of my food,
And my cries pour out like water.
25For what I fear comes upon me,
And what I dread befalls me.
26I am not at ease, nor am I quiet,
And I am not at rest, but turmoil comes.”