• Job’s Lament

  • 1 Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
  • 2 And Job said,
  • 3 “May the day on which I was to be born perish, As well as the night which said, ‘A boy is conceived.’
  • 4 “May that day be darkness; May God above not care for it, Nor light shine on it.
  • 5 “May darkness and black gloom claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it.
  • 6 “As for 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 “Behold, may that night be barren; May no joyful shout enter it.
  • 8 “May those curse it who curse the day, Who are prepared to disturb Leviathan.
  • 9 “May the stars of its twilight be darkened; May it wait for light but have none, And may it not see the breaking dawn;
  • 10 Because it did not shut the opening of my mother’s womb, Or hide trouble from my eyes.
  • 11 “Why did I not die at birth, Come out of the womb and pass away?
  • 12 “Why were the knees there in front of me, And why the breasts, that I would nurse?
  • 13 “For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then, I would have been at rest,
  • 14 With kings and counselors of the earth, Who rebuilt ruins for themselves;
  • 15 Or with rulers who had gold, Who were filling their houses with silver.
  • 16 “Or like a miscarriage which is hidden, I would not exist, As infants that never saw light.
  • 17 “There the wicked cease from raging, And there the weary 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 one burdened with grief, 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 filled with jubilation, And rejoice when they find the grave?
  • 23 “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God has shut off?
  • 24 “For my groaning comes at the sight of my food, And my cries pour out like water.
  • 25 “For what I fear comes upon me, And what I dread encounters me.
  • 26 “I am not at ease, nor am I quiet, And I am not at rest, but turmoil comes.”