< Job 3 >

1 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day. 2 And Job spoke, and said, 3 Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night [in which] it was said, There is a man child conceived. 4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. 5 Let darkness and the shades of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. 6 As [for] that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined to the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months. 7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein. 8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning. 9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark; let it look for light, but [have] none; neither let it see the dawning of the day: 10 Because it prevented not my birth, nor hid sorrow from my eyes. 11 Why died I not from the womb? [why] did I [not] expire at the time of my birth? 12 Why did the knees receive me? or why the breasts that I should be nursed? 13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, 14 With kings and counselors of the earth, who built desolate places for themselves; 15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver: 16 Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants [which] never saw light. 17 There the wicked cease [from] troubling; and there the weary are at rest. 18 [There] the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. 19 The small and great are there; and the servant [is] free from his master. 20 Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter [in] soul; 21 Who long for death, but it [cometh] not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures; 22 Who rejoice exceedingly, [and] 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? 24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters. 25 For the thing which I greatly feared hath come upon me, and that which I dreaded hath come to me. 26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

< Job 3 >