• Job Curses the Day of His Birth

  • 1 Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
  • 2 And Job answered and said,
  • 3 “Let the day perish on which I was to be born, And the night which said, ‘A man is conceived.’
  • 4 “May that day be darkness; Let not God seek it from above, Nor light shine on it.
  • 5 “Let darkness and shadow of death redeem it; Let a cloud dwell upon it; Let the blackness of the day terrify it.
  • 6 “As for that night, let thick darkness take 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 shout enter it.
  • 8 “Let those curse it who curse the day, Who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
  • 9 “Let the stars of its twilight be darkened; Let it hope for light but have none, And let it not see the breaking dawn,
  • 10 Because it did not shut the opening of my mother’s body, Or hide trouble from my eyes.
  • 11 “Why did I not die from the womb, Come forth from the womb and breathe my last?
  • 12 “Why did the knees receive me, And why the breasts, that I should suck?
  • 13 “For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then; it would have been rest to me,
  • 14 With kings and with counselors of the earth, Who rebuilt waste places for themselves,
  • 15 Or with princes who had gold, Who were filling their houses with silver.
  • 16 “Or why was I not like a miscarriage hidden away, As infants that never saw light?
  • 17 “There the wicked cease from raging, And there the weary of strength are at rest.
  • 18 “The prisoners are at ease together; They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
  • 19 “The small and the great are there, And the slave is free from his master.
  • 20 “Why is light given to him who is troubled, And life to the bitter of soul,
  • 21 Who long for death, but there is none, And dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
  • 22 Who are glad with joy, And rejoice when they find the grave?
  • 23 “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God has hedged in?
  • 24 “For my groaning comes at the sight of my food, And my roaring pours out like water.
  • 25 “For the dread that I dread comes upon me, And what I am afraid of befalls me.
  • 26 “I am not complacent, nor am I quiet, And I am not at rest, and raging comes.”