Job 3

1 Then, opening his mouth, and cursing the day of his birth,

After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

2 Job made answer and said,

And Job answered and said:

3 Let destruction take the day of my birth, and the night on which it was said, A man child has come into the world.

Let the day perish wherein I was born, And the night which said, There is a man-child conceived.

4 That day — let it be dark; let not God take note of it from on high, and let not the light be shining on it;

Let that day be darkness; Let not God from above seek for it, Neither let the light shine upon it.

5 Let the dark and the black night take it for themselves; let it be covered with a cloud; let the dark shades of day send fear on it.

Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own; Let a cloud dwell upon it; Let all that maketh black the day terrify it.

6 That night — let the thick dark take it; let it not have joy among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it: Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not come into the number of the months.

7 As for that night, let it have no fruit; let no voice of joy be sounded in it;

Lo, let that night be barren; Let no joyful voice come therein.

8 Let it be cursed by those who put a curse on the day; who are ready to make Leviathan awake.

Let them curse it that curse the day, Who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

9 Let its morning stars be dark; let it be looking for light, but may it not have any; let it not see the eyes of the dawn.

Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark: Let it look for light, but have none; Neither let it behold the eyelids of the morning:

10 Because it did not keep the doors of my mother's body shut, so that trouble might be veiled from my eyes.

Because it shut not up the doors of my [mother’s] womb, Nor hid trouble from mine eyes.

11 Why did death not take me when I came out of my mother's body, why did I not, when I came out, give up my last breath?

Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me?

12 Why did the knees take me, or why the breasts that they might give me milk?

Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck?

13 For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in sleep have been in peace,

For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest,

14 With kings and the wise ones of the earth, who put up great houses for themselves;

With kings and counsellors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves;

15 Or with rulers who had gold, and whose houses were full of silver;

Or with princes that had gold, Who filled their houses with silver:

16 Or as a child dead at birth I might never have come into existence; like young children who have not seen the light.

Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light.

17 There the passions of the evil are over, and those whose strength has come to an end have rest.

There the wicked cease from troubling; And there the weary are at rest.

18 There the prisoners are at peace together; the voice of the overseer comes not again to their ears.

There the prisoners are at ease together; They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

19 The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master.

The small and the great are there: And the servant is free from his master.

20 Why does he give light to him who is in trouble, and life to the bitter in soul;

Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, And life unto the bitter in soul;

21 To those whose desire is for death, but it comes not; who are searching for it more than for secret wealth;

Who long for death, but it cometh not, And dig for it more than for hid treasures;

22 Who are glad with great joy, and full of delight when they come to their last resting-place;

Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad, when they can find the grave?

23 To a man whose way is veiled, and who is shut in by God?

[Why is light given] to a man whose way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in?

24 In place of my food I have grief, and cries of sorrow come from me like water.

For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my groanings are poured out like water.

25 For I have a fear and it comes on me, and my heart is greatly troubled.

For the thing which I fear cometh upon me, And that which I am afraid of cometh unto me.

26 I have no peace, no quiet, and no rest; nothing but pain comes on me.

I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; But trouble cometh.