Job 3

₃“Let the day perish on which I was born,

and the night that said,

‘A man is conceived.’

₄Let that day be darkness!

May God above not seek it,

nor light shine upon it.

₅Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.

Let clouds dwell upon it;

let the blackness of the day terrify it.

₆That night—let thick darkness seize it!

Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;

let it not come into the number of the months.

₇Behold, let that night be barren;

let no joyful cry enter it.

₈Let those curse it who curse the day,

who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.

₉Let the stars of its dawn be dark;

let it hope for light, but have none,

nor see the eyelids of the morning,

₁₀because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,

nor hide trouble from my eyes.

₁₁“Why did I not die at birth,

come out from the womb and expire?

₁₂Why did the knees receive me?

Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?

₁₃For then I would have lain down and been quiet;

I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,

₁₄with kings and counselors of the earth

who rebuilt ruins for themselves,

₁₅or with princes who had gold,

who filled their houses with silver.

₁₆Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child,

as infants who never see the light?

₁₇There the wicked cease from troubling,

and there the weary are at rest.

₁₈There the prisoners are at ease together;

they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

₁₉The small and the great are there,

and the slave is free from his master.

₂₀“Why is light given to him who is in misery,

and life to the bitter in soul,

₂₁who long for death, but it comes not,

and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

₂₂who rejoice exceedingly

and are glad when they find the grave?

₂₃Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,

whom God has hedged in?

₂₄For my sighing comes instead of my bread,

and my groanings are poured out like water.

₂₅For the thing that I fear comes upon me,

and what I dread befalls me.

₂₆I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;

I have no rest, but trouble comes.”