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

3 "Let the day perish in which I was born,

the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’

4 Let that day be darkness.

Don’t let God from above seek for it,

neither let the light shine on it.

5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own.

Let a cloud dwell on it.

Let all that makes the day black terrify it.

6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it.

Let it not rejoice among the days of the year.

Let it not come into the number of the months.

7 Behold, let that night be barren.

Let no joyful voice come therein.

8 Let them curse it who curse the day,

who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark.

Let it look for light, but have none,

neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,

10 because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,

nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

11 "Why didn’t I die from the womb?

Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?

12 Why did the knees receive me?

Or why the breast, that I should nurse?

13 For now I should have lain down and been quiet.

I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

14 with kings and counselors of the earth,

who built up waste places for themselves;

15 or with princes who had gold,

who filled their houses with silver:

16 or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been,

as infants who never saw light.

17 There the wicked cease from troubling.

There the weary are at rest.

18 There the prisoners are at ease together.

They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.

19 The small and the great are there.

The servant is free from his master.

20 "Why is light given to him who is in misery,

life to the bitter in soul,

21 Who long for death, but it doesn’t come;

and dig for it more than for hidden 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 hidden,

whom God has hedged in?

24 For my sighing comes before I eat.

My groanings are poured out like water.

25 For the thing which I fear comes on me,

That which I am afraid of comes to me.

26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest;

but trouble comes."

1 Por fim foi Job quem começou a falar, e disse:

2 Que seja maldito o dia em que nasci, o momento em que fui concebido. Que nunca mais seja lembrado. Que nem sequer Deus o recorde,que fique mergulhado nas trevas eternas. Sim, a escuridão se apodere dele, nuvens negras o envolvam. Seja riscado do calendário;nunca mais seja contado como os outros dias do ano. Essa noite seja recordada como uma noite gelada e triste.

8 Aqueles que sabem amaldiçoar os dias e que esconjuram o Leviatã,que o amaldiçoem.

9 As estrelas da noite desapareçam. Espere ancioso pela luz e nunca mais a veja,nunca mais veja a luz da manhã.

10 Seja amaldiçoado por não ter sabido fechar o seio de minha mãe,por ter deixado que eu nascesse para toda esta aflição.

17 É porque ali, na morte, o malvado cessa de perturbare também os que estão cansados da vida repousam.

22 Que alívio abençoado, quando acabam por morrer!

23 Porque é que se deixa um homem nascer,se Deus lhe vai dar unicamente uma vida sem esperança, sem utilidade, cheia de frustrações?

24 Não consigo comer, porque ando sempre a suspirar de aflição;os meus gemidos jorram como água.

25 Aquilo que sempre receei acabou por me acontecer.

26 Nunca tive muito sossego e descanso;pois apesar disso a desgraça caiu-me em cima.