3:1 | After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his [birth]. |
3:2 | And Job spoke, and said: |
3:3 | "May the day perish on which I was born, And the night [in which] it was said, `A male child is conceived.' |
3:4 | May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, Nor the light shine upon it. |
3:5 | May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it. |
3:6 | [As for] that night, may darkness seize it; May it not rejoice among the days of the year, May it not come into the number of the months. |
3:7 | Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it! |
3:8 | May those curse it who curse the day, Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan. |
3:9 | May the stars of its morning be dark; May it look for light, but [have] none, And not see the dawning of the day; |
3:10 | Because it did not shut up the doors of my [mother's] womb, Nor hide sorrow from my eyes. |
3:11 | "Why did I not die at birth? [Why] did I [not] perish when I came from the womb? |
3:12 | Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? |
3:13 | For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest |
3:14 | With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built ruins for themselves, |
3:15 | Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses [with] silver; |
3:16 | Or [why] was I not hidden like a stillborn child, Like infants who never saw light? |
3:17 | There the wicked cease [from] troubling, And there the weary are at rest. |
3:18 | [There] the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the voice of the oppressor. |
3:19 | The small and great are there, And the servant [is] free from his master. |
3:20 | "Why is light given to him who is in misery, And life to the bitter of soul, |
3:21 | Who long for death, but it does not [come], And search for it more than hidden treasures; |
3:22 | Who rejoice exceedingly, [And] are glad when they can find the grave? |
3:23 | [Why is light given] to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God has hedged in? |
3:24 | For my sighing comes before I eat, And my groanings pour out like water. |
3:25 | For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me. |
3:26 | I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes." |