Job 3

1 After this Job began speaking, cursing the day of his birth.

After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

2 He said,

And Job spoke, and said:

3 “Wipe out the day I was born, and the night when it was announced that a boy had been conceived.

Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night wherein it was said: 'A man-child is brought forth.'

4 Turn that day to darkness. God above should not remember it. Don't let light shine on it.

Let that day be darkness; let not God inquire after it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

5 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.

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 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.

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 Let that night be childless, with no sounds of happiness heard.

Lo, let that night be desolate; let no joyful voice come therein.

8 Those who place curses on certain days should curse it, those who have the power to raise Leviathan.

Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

9 Its early morning stars should stay dark. Looking for light, may none come, may it not see the glimmer of dawn

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 for it did not shut my mother's womb to prevent me from seeing trouble.

Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid trouble from mine eyes.

11 Why wasn't I stillborn? Why didn't I die at birth?

Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not perish at birth?

12 Why was there a lap for me to lie on, or breasts for me to suck?

Why did the knees receive me? And wherefore the breasts, that I should suck?

13 For now I would be lying down in peace. I would be sleeping and at rest,

For now should I have lain still and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest —

14 along with the kings of this world and their officials whose palaces now lie in ruins,

With kings and counsellors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;

15 or with noblemen who collected gold and filled their houses with silver.

Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver;

16 Why wasn't I a miscarriage, buried in secret, a baby who never saw the light?

Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants that never saw light.

17 There in the grave the wicked give no more trouble, and those whose strength is gone have their rest.

There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary are at rest.

18 There prisoners take it easy—they don't hear the commands of their oppressors.

There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

19 Both small and great are there, and slaves are freed from their masters.

The small and great are there alike; and the servant is free from his master.

20 Why does God give life to those who are suffering, living bitterly miserable lives,

Wherewith is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul —

21 those who are waiting for death that does not come and who are looking for death more desperately than hunting for treasure?

Who long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;

22 They're so incredibly happy when the reach the grave!

Who rejoice unto exultation, and are glad, when they can find the grave? —

23 Why is light given to someone who doesn't know where they're going, someone God has fenced in?

To a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?

24 My groans are the bread I eat; my raging tears are the water I drink.

For my sighing cometh instead of my food, and my roarings are poured out like water.

25 For all that I feared has happened to me; everything that I dreaded has come upon me.

For the thing which I did fear is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of hath overtaken me.

26 I have no peace, no quiet, no rest. All that comes is rage.”

I was not at ease, neither was I quiet, neither had I rest; but trouble came.