Job 3
1 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.
After this Job began speaking, cursing the day of his birth.
2 Job answered:
He said,
3 “Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’
“Wipe out the day I was born, and the night when it was announced that a boy had been conceived.
4 Let that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it.
Turn that day to darkness. God above should not remember it. Don't let light shine on it.
5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes the day black terrify it.
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.
6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.
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.
7 Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.
Let that night be childless, with no sounds of happiness heard.
8 Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
Those who place curses on certain days should curse it, those who have the power to raise Leviathan.
9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,
Its early morning stars should stay dark. Looking for light, may none come, may it not see the glimmer of dawn
10 because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
for it did not shut my mother's womb to prevent me from seeing trouble.
11 “Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
Why wasn't I stillborn? Why didn't I die at birth?
12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse?
Why was there a lap for me to lie on, or breasts for me to suck?
13 For now I should have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,
For now I would be lying down in peace. I would be sleeping and at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;
along with the kings of this world and their officials whose palaces now lie in ruins,
15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;
or with noblemen who collected gold and filled their houses with silver.
16 or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.
Why wasn't I a miscarriage, buried in secret, a baby who never saw the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.
There in the grave the wicked give no more trouble, and those whose strength is gone have their rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.
There prisoners take it easy—they don't hear the commands of their oppressors.
19 The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.
Both small and great are there, and slaves are freed from their masters.
20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,
Why does God give life to those who are suffering, living bitterly miserable lives,
21 who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
those who are waiting for death that does not come and who are looking for death more desperately than hunting for treasure?
22 who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
They're so incredibly happy when the reach the grave!
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
Why is light given to someone who doesn't know where they're going, someone God has fenced in?
24 For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.
My groans are the bread I eat; my raging tears are the water I drink.
25 For the thing which I fear comes on me, that which I am afraid of comes to me.
For all that I feared has happened to me; everything that I dreaded has come upon me.
26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest; but trouble comes.”
I have no peace, no quiet, no rest. All that comes is rage.”
