Job 3
1 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.
After this, opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
2 Job answered:
So then Job began, and said:
3 “Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’
Perish, the day wherein I was born, and the night it was said, Lo! a manchild!
4 Let that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it.
That day, be it darkness, —Let not God enquire after it from above, May there shine upon it no clear beam:
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.
Let darkness and death-shade buy it back, May there settle down upon it a cloud, Let a day’s dark eclipse cause it terror:
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.
That night, darkness take it, —May it not rejoice among the days of the year, Into the number of months, let it not enter.
7 Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.
Lo! that night, be it barren, Let no joyous shouting enter therein:
8 Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
Let day-cursers denounce it, Those skilled in rousing the dragon of the sky:
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,
Darkened be the stars of its twilight, —Let it wait for light, and there be none, neither let it see the eyelashes of the dawn:
10 because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
Because it closed not the doors of the womb wherein I was, and so hid trouble from mine eyes.
11 “Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
Wherefore, in the womb, did I not die? From the womb, come forth and cease to breathe?
12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse?
For what reason, were there prepared for me—knees? and why—breasts, that I might suck?
13 For now I should have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,
Surely, at once, had I lain down, and been quiet, I had fallen asleep, then, had I been at rest:
14 with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;
With kings, and counselors of the earth, who had built them pyramids:
15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;
Or with rulers possessing, gold, —Who had filled their houses with silver:
16 or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.
Or that, like an untimely birth hidden away, I had not come into being, like infants that never saw light:
17 There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.
There, the lawless, cease from raging, and there the toil-worn are at rest:
18 There the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.
At once are prisoners at peace, they hear not the voice of a driver:
19 The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.
Small and great, there, they are, and, the slave, is free from his master.
20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,
Wherefore give, to the wretched, light? Or, life, to the embittered in soul?—
21 who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
Who long for death, and it is not, And have digged for it, beyond hid treasures:
22 who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
Who rejoice unto exultation, Are glad, when they can find the grave:
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
To a man, whose way is concealed, And GOD hath straitly enclosed him?
24 For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.
For, in the face of my food, my sighing, cometh in, and, poured out like the water, are my groans:
25 For the thing which I fear comes on me, that which I am afraid of comes to me.
For, a dread, I dreaded, and it hath come upon me, and, that from which I shrank, hath overtaken me.
26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest; but trouble comes.”
I was not careless, nor was I secure, nor had I settled down, —when there came—consternation!
