• Job Speaks

  • 1 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
  • 2 He said:
  • 3 “May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’
  • 4 That day—may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine on it.
  • 5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm it.
  • 6 That night—may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year nor be entered in any of the months.
  • 7 May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it.
  • 8 May those who curse days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
  • 9 May its morning stars become dark; may it wait for daylight in vain and not see the first rays of dawn,
  • 10 for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes.
  • 11 “Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?
  • 12 Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed?
  • 13 For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest
  • 14 with kings and rulers of the earth, who built for themselves places now lying in ruins,
  • 15 with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
  • 16 Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day?
  • 17 There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest.
  • 18 Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout.
  • 19 The small and the great are there, and the slaves are freed from their owners.
  • 20 “Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul,
  • 21 to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure,
  • 22 who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave?
  • 23 Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
  • 24 For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water.
  • 25 What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.
  • 26 I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”