Job 3
1 Post hæc aperuit Job os suum, et maledixit diei suo,
After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
2 et locutus est:
And Job answered and said:
3 [Pereat dies in qua natus sum, et nox in qua dictum est: Conceptus est homo.
Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which said, There is a man child conceived.
4 Dies ille vertatur in tenebras: non requirat eum Deus desuper, et non illustretur lumine.
Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
5 Obscurent eum tenebræ et umbra mortis; occupet eum caligo, et involvatur amaritudine.
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 Noctem illam tenebrosus turbo possideat; non computetur in diebus anni, nec numeretur in mensibus.
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 Sit nox illa solitaria, nec laude digna.
Lo, let that night be barren; let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Maledicant ei qui maledicunt diei, qui parati sunt suscitare Leviathan.
Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
9 Obtenebrentur stellæ caligine ejus; expectet lucem, et non videat, nec ortum surgentis auroræ.
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 Quia non conclusit ostia ventris qui portavit me, nec abstulit mala ab oculis meis.
Because it shut not up the doors of my [mother’s] womb, nor hid trouble from mine eyes.
11 Quare non in vulva mortuus sum? egressus ex utero non statim perii?
Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
12 Quare exceptus genibus? cur lactatus uberibus?
Why did the knees receive me? or why the breasts, that I should suck?
13 Nunc enim dormiens silerem, et somno meo requiescerem
For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest:
14 cum regibus et consulibus terræ, qui ædificant sibi solitudines;
With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built up waste places for themselves;
15 aut cum principibus qui possident aurum, et replent domos suas argento;
Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16 aut sicut abortivum absconditum non subsisterem, vel qui concepti non viderunt lucem.
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
17 Ibi impii cessaverunt a tumultu, et ibi requieverunt fessi robore.
There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.
18 Et quondam vincti pariter sine molestia, non audierunt vocem exactoris.
There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
19 Parvus et magnus ibi sunt, et servus liber a domino suo.
The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
20 Quare misero data est lux, et vita his qui in amaritudine animæ sunt:
Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
21 qui expectant mortem, et non venit, quasi effodientes thesaurum;
Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
22 gaudentque vehementer cum invenerint sepulchrum?
Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 viro cujus abscondita est via et circumdedit eum Deus tenebris?
[Why is light given] to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
24 Antequam comedam, suspiro; et tamquam inundantes aquæ, sic rugitus meus:
For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like water.
25 quia timor quem timebam evenit mihi, et quod verebar accidit.
For the thing which I fear cometh upon me, and that which I am afraid of cometh unto me.
26 Nonne dissimulavi? nonne silui? nonne quievi? et venit super me indignatio.]
I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; but trouble cometh.
