Job 3:1-26

  • Job laments his birth (1-26)

3  It was after this that Job began to speak and to curse the day of his birth.*+ 2  Job said:  3  “Let the day perish on which I was born,+Also the night when someone said: ‘A man has been conceived!’  4  Let that day be darkness. Let God above show no concern for it;Let no light shine upon it.  5  Let the deepest darkness* reclaim it. Let a rain cloud settle over it. Let whatever darkens the day terrify it.  6  That night—let the gloom seize it;+Let it not rejoice among the days of a year,And let it not enter among the number of the months.  7  Indeed! Let that night become barren;Let no joyful cry be heard in it.  8  Let those who curse the day put a curse on it,Those who are able to awaken Le·viʹa·than.*+  9  Let the stars of its twilight grow dark;Let it wait in vain for daylight,And let it not see the rays of dawn. 10  For it did not close the doors of my mother’s womb;+Nor did it hide trouble from my eyes. 11  Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?+ 12  Why were there knees to receive meAnd breasts to nurse me? 13  For now I would be lying down undisturbed;+I would be sleeping and at rest+ 14  With kings of the earth and their advisers,Who built for themselves places that are now in ruins,* 15  Or with princes who possessed gold,Whose houses were filled with silver. 16  Or why was I not like a hidden miscarriage,Like children who have never seen the light? 17  There even the wicked have ceased from agitation;There the weary are at rest.+ 18  There the prisoners are at ease together;They do not hear the voice of the one forcing them to work. 19  Small and great are the same there,+And the slave is set free from his master. 20  Why does he give light to one who is sufferingAnd life to those in bitter distress?*+ 21  Why do they long for death, but it does not come?+ They dig for it more than for hidden treasures, 22  Those who are rejoicing greatly,Who are happy when they find the grave. 23  Why does he give light to a man who has lost his way,Whom God has hedged in?+ 24  For in place of my food comes my sighing,+And my groaning+ pours out like water. 25  For what I have dreaded has come upon me,And what I have feared has befallen me. 26  I have had no peace, no quiet, no rest,But trouble keeps coming.”

Footnotes

Lit., “curse his day.”
Or “darkness and death’s shadow.”
Understood to refer to the crocodile or some other large, powerful aquatic animal.
Or possibly, “who built desolate places for themselves.”
Or “those bitter of soul.”