Job responds differently

¹Afterward, Job spoke up and cursed the day he was born.

²Job said:

³Perish the day I was born,

the night someone said,

“A boy has been conceived.”

⁴That day—let it be darkness;

may God above ignore it,

and light not shine on it.

⁵May deepest darkness claim it

and a cloud linger over it;

may all that darkens the day terrify it.

⁶May gloom seize that night;

may it not be counted in the days of a year;

may it not appear in the months.

⁷May that night be childless;

may no happy singing come in it.

⁸May those who curse the day curse it,

those with enough skill to awaken Leviathan.

⁹May its evening stars stay dark;

may it wait in vain for light;

may it not see dawn’s gleam,

¹⁰because it didn’t close the doors of my mother’s womb,[#3.10 Heb lacks]

didn’t hide trouble from my eyes.

Job laments his misfortune

¹¹Why didn’t I die at birth,

come forth from the womb and die?

¹²Why did knees receive me

and breasts let me nurse?

¹³For now I would be lying down quietly;

I’d sleep; rest would be mine

¹⁶Or why wasn’t I like a buried miscarried infant,

like babies who never see light?

¹⁷There the wicked rage no more;

there the weak rest.

¹⁸Prisoners are entirely at ease;

they don’t hear a boss’s voice.

¹⁹Both small and great are there;

a servant is free from his masters.

²⁰Why is light given to the hard worker,

life to those bitter of soul,

²¹those waiting in vain for death,

²²who rejoice excitedly,

²³Why is light given to the person whose way is hidden,[#3.23 Heb lacks]

whom God has fenced in?

²⁴My groans become my bread;

my roars pour out like water.

²⁵Because I was afraid of something awful,

and it arrived;

what I dreaded came to me.

²⁶I had no ease, quiet, or rest,

and trembling came.