1 A fter this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.

2 J ob answered:

3 “ Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’

4 L et that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it.

5 L et darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.

6 A s 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 B ehold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.

8 L et them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

9 L et 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 b ecause 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 W hy did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse?

13 F or now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

14 w ith kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;

15 o r with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver:

16 o r as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.

17 T here the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.

18 T here the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.

19 T he 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 W ho long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

22 w ho rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

23 W hy is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

24 F or my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.

25 F or 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 have I rest; but trouble comes.”