Job 3

Job Deplores His Birth

1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.2 And Job spoke, and said:

3 "May*Job 10:18, 19; Jer. 20:14–18 the day perish on which I was born,

And the night inwhich it was said,

‘A male child is conceived.’

4 May that day be darkness;

May God above not seek it,

Nor the light shine upon it.

5 May darkness and *Job 10:21, 22; Jer. 13:16; Amos 5:8the shadow of death claim it;

May a cloud settle on it;

May the blackness of the day terrify it.

6 Asfor that night, may darkness seize it;

May it not rejoice among the days of the year,

May it not come into the number of the months.

7 Oh, may that night be barren!

May no joyful shout come into it!

8 May those curse it who curse the day,

Those *Jer. 9:17who are ready to arouse Leviathan.

9 May the stars of its morning be dark;

May it look for light, but have none,

And not see the dawning of the day;

10 Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,

Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.

11 "Why*Job 10:18, 19 did I not die at birth?

Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?

12 *Gen. 30:3Why did the knees receive me?

Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?

13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet,

I would have been asleep;

Then I would have been at rest

14 With kings and counselors of the earth,

Who *Job 15:28; Is. 58:12built ruins for themselves,

15 Or with princes who had gold,

Who filled their houses with silver;

16 Or why was I not hidden *Ps. 58:8like a stillborn child,

Like infants who never saw light?

17 There the wicked cease from troubling,

And there the weary are at *Job 17:16rest.

18 There the prisoners rest together;

*Job 39:7They do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

19 The small and great are there,

And the servant is free from his master.

20 "Why*Jer. 20:18 is light given to him who is in misery,

And life to the *2 Kin. 4:27bitter of soul,

21 Who *Rev. 9:6long for death, but it does not come,

And search for it more than *Prov. 2:4hidden treasures;

22 Who rejoice exceedingly,

And are glad when they can find the *Job 7:15, 16grave?

23 Whyislightgiven to a man whose way is hidden,

*Job 19:8; Ps. 88:8; Lam. 3:7And whom God has hedged in?

24 For my sighing comes before I eat,

And my groanings pour out like water.

25 For the thing I greatly *(Job 9:28; 30:15)feared has come upon me,

And what I dreaded has happened to me.

26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;

I have no rest, for trouble comes."