Job 3

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

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

2 And Job answered and said:

So then Job began, and said:

3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which said, There is a man child conceived.

Perish, the day wherein I was born, and the night it was said, Lo! a manchild!

4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon 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 upon it; let all that maketh black the day 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 upon 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 Lo, 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 that 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 the twilight thereof be dark: let it look for light, but have none; neither let it behold 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 shut not up the doors of my [mother’s] womb, nor hid trouble from mine eyes.

Because it closed not the doors of the womb wherein I was, and so hid trouble from mine eyes.

11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

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 breasts, that I should suck?

For what reason, were there prepared for me—knees? and why—breasts, that I might suck?

13 For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I 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 counsellors of the earth, which built up waste places for themselves;

With kings, and counselors of the earth, who had built them pyramids:

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

Or with rulers possessing, gold, —Who had filled their houses with silver:

16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which 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; and there the weary be 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 hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

At once are prisoners at peace, they hear not the voice of a driver:

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

Small and great, there, they are, and, the slave, is free from his master.

20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;

Wherefore give, to the wretched, light? Or, life, to the embittered in soul?—

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

Who long for death, and it is not, And have digged for it, beyond hid treasures:

22 Which 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 hid, and whom God hath hedged in?

To a man, whose way is concealed, And GOD hath straitly enclosed him?

24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings 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 cometh upon me, and that which I am afraid of cometh unto 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 have I rest; but trouble cometh.

I was not careless, nor was I secure, nor had I settled down, —when there came—consternation!