Job, 3

¹ It was after this that Job opened his mouth and began to call down evil upon his day.

² Job now answered and said:

³ “Let the day perish on which I came to be born, Also the night that someone said, ‘An able-bodied man^*1 has been conceived!’

⁴ As for that day, let it become darkness. Let not God^*1 look for it from above, Nor let daylight beam upon it.

⁵ Let darkness and deep shadow^*1 reclaim it. Let a rain cloud reside over it. Let the things that darken a day terrorize it.

⁶ That night—let gloom take it; Let it not feel glad among the days of a year; Among the number of the lunar months let it not enter.

⁷ Look! That night—let it become sterile; Let no joyful cry come in it.

⁸ Let cursers^*1 of the day execrate it, Those ready to awaken Le·viʹa·than.^*2

⁹ Let the stars of its twilight grow dark; Let it wait for the light and there be none; And let it not see the beams of dawn.

¹⁰ For it did not close the doors of my [mother’s] belly, And so conceal trouble from my eyes.

¹¹ Why from the womb did I not proceed to die? [Why did I not] come forth from the belly itself and then expire?

¹² Why was it that knees confronted me, And why breasts that I should take suck?

¹³ For by now I should have lain down that I might be undisturbed; I should have slept then; I should be at rest

¹⁴ With kings and counselors of the earth, Those building desolate places^*1 for themselves,

¹⁵ Or with princes who have gold, Those who fill their houses with silver;

¹⁶ Or, like a hidden miscarriage, I should not come to be, Like children that have seen no light.

¹⁷ There the wicked themselves have ceased from agitation, And there those weary in power are at rest.

¹⁸ Together prisoners themselves are at ease; They actually do not hear the voice of one driving them to work.

¹⁹ Small and great are there the same, And the slave is set free from his master.^*1

²⁰ Why does he give light to one having trouble, And life to those bitter of soul?

²¹ Why are there those waiting for death, and it is not, Although they keep digging for it more than for hidden treasures?

²² Those who are rejoicing to gleefulness,^*1 They exult because they find a burial place.

²³ [Why does he give light] to able-bodied man,^*1 whose way has been concealed, And whom God^*2 hedges in?

²⁴ For before my food my sighing comes, And like waters my roaring cries pour forth;

²⁵ Because a dreadful thing I have dreaded, and it comes upon me; And what I have been scared of comes to me.

²⁶ I have not been carefree, nor have I been undisturbed, Nor been at rest, and yet agitation comes.”