| 1 | After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day (birthday). |
| 2 | And Job said, |
| 3 | Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which announced, There is a man-child conceived. |
| 4 | Let that day be darkness! May not God above regard it, nor light shine upon it. |
| 5 | Let gloom and deep darkness claim it for their own; let a cloud dwell upon it; let all that blackens the day terrify it (the day that I was born). |
| 6 | As for that night, let thick darkness seize it; let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months. |
| 7 | Yes, let that night be solitary
and
barren; let no joyful voice come into it. |
| 8 | Let those curse it who curse the day, who are skilled in rousing up Leviathan. |
| 9 | Let the stars of the early dawn of that day be dark; let [the morning] look in vain for the light, nor let it behold the day’s dawning, |
| 10 | Because it shut not the doors of my mother’s womb nor hid sorrow
and
trouble from my eyes. |
| 11 | Why was I not stillborn? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bore me? |
| 12 | Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck? |
| 13 | For then would I have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then would I have been at rest [in death] |
| 14 | With kings and counselors of the earth, who built up [now] desolate ruins for themselves, |
| 15 | Or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. |
| 16 | Or [why] was I not a miscarriage, hidden
and
put away, as infants who never saw light? |
| 17 | There [in death] the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. |
| 18 | There the [captive] prisoners rest together; they hear not the taskmaster’s voice. |
| 19 | The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master. |
| 20 | Why is light [of life] given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, |
| 21 | Who long
and
wait for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, |
| 22 | Who rejoice exceedingly and are elated when they find the grave? |
| 23 | [Why is the light of day given] to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in? |
| 24 | For my sighing comes before my food, and my groanings are poured out like water. |
| 25 | For the thing which I greatly fear comes upon me, and that of which I am afraid befalls me. |
| 26 | I was not
or
am not at ease, nor had I
or
have I rest, nor was I
or
am I quiet, yet trouble came
and
still comes [upon me]. |
Cross references:
-
Job 3:19 : Jer. 20:14-18.
|