Job 3
1 After this Job began speaking, cursing the day of his birth.
After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
2 He said,
And Job spoke, and said,
3 “Wipe out the day I was born, and the night when it was announced that a boy had been conceived.
Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
4 Turn that day to darkness. God above should not remember it. Don't let light shine on it.
Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine on it.
5 Take it back, darkness and death-shadow. A black cloud should overshadow it. It should be as terrifying as the darkness of an eclipse during the day.
Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell on it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 Blot out that night as if it never existed. Don't count it on the calendar. Don't let it have a day in any month.
As for that night, let darkness seize on it; let it not be joined to the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Let that night be childless, with no sounds of happiness heard.
See, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Those who place curses on certain days should curse it, those who have the power to raise Leviathan.
Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
9 Its early morning stars should stay dark. Looking for light, may none come, may it not see the glimmer of dawn
Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:
10 for it did not shut my mother's womb to prevent me from seeing trouble.
Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from my eyes.
11 Why wasn't I stillborn? Why didn't I die at birth?
Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
12 Why was there a lap for me to lie on, or breasts for me to suck?
Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
13 For now I would be lying down in peace. I would be sleeping and at rest,
For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
14 along with the kings of this world and their officials whose palaces now lie in ruins,
With kings and counsellors of the earth, which build desolate places for themselves;
15 or with noblemen who collected gold and filled their houses with silver.
Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16 Why wasn't I a miscarriage, buried in secret, a baby who never saw the light?
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
17 There in the grave the wicked give no more trouble, and those whose strength is gone have their rest.
There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.
18 There prisoners take it easy—they don't hear the commands of their oppressors.
There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
19 Both small and great are there, and slaves are freed from their masters.
The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
20 Why does God give life to those who are suffering, living bitterly miserable lives,
Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul;
21 those who are waiting for death that does not come and who are looking for death more desperately than hunting for treasure?
Which long for death, but it comes not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
22 They're so incredibly happy when the reach the grave!
Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to someone who doesn't know where they're going, someone God has fenced in?
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God has hedged in?
24 My groans are the bread I eat; my raging tears are the water I drink.
For my sighing comes before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
25 For all that I feared has happened to me; everything that I dreaded has come upon me.
For the thing which I greatly feared is come on me, and that which I was afraid of is come to me.
26 I have no peace, no quiet, no rest. All that comes is rage.”
I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
