Job 3

Job 3

Job Curses the Day He Was Born

¹After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

²Job said:

³“Let the day perish in which I was born,[#Job 10.18; Jer 20.14]

and the night that said,

‘A male is conceived.’

⁴Let that day be darkness!

May God above not seek it

or light shine on it.

⁵Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.[#Job 10.21; Ps 23.4; Jer 2.6]

Let clouds settle upon it;

let the blackness of the day terrify it.

⁶That night—let thick darkness seize it![#Job 23.17]

let it not rejoice among the days of the year;

let it not come into the number of the months.

⁷Yes, let that night be barren;

let no joyful cry be heard in it.

⁸Let those curse it who curse the Sea,[#Job 41.10; #3.8 Cn: Heb day]

those who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan.

⁹Let the stars of its dawn be dark;[#Job 41.18]

let it hope for light but have none;

may it not see the eyelids of the morning—

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

and hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹“Why did I not die at birth,[#Job 10.18]

come forth from the womb and expire?

¹²Why were there knees to receive me[#Gen 30.3; Isa 66.12]

or breasts for me to suck?

¹³Now I would be lying down and quiet;

I would be asleep; then I would be at rest

¹⁴with kings and counselors of the earth[#Job 12.17, 18; 15.28]

who rebuild ruins for themselves,

¹⁵or with princes who have gold,

who fill their houses with silver.

¹⁶Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child,[#Eccl 6.3]

like an infant that never sees the light?

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling,[#Job 17.16]

and there the weary are at rest.

¹⁸There the prisoners are at ease together;

they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.

¹⁹The small and the great are there,

and the slaves are free from their masters.

²⁰“Why is light given to one in misery[#1 Sam 1.10; Prov 31.6; Isa 38.15; Ezek 27.31]

and life to the bitter in soul,

²¹who long for death, but it does not come,[#Rev 9.6]

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 one who cannot see the way,[#Job 19.6, 8, 12; Lam 3.7]

whom God has fenced in?

²⁴For my sighing comes like my bread,[#Ps 42.3, 4; #3.24 Heb before]

and my groanings are poured out like water.

²⁵Truly 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.”