Job, 3

1. After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

1. At length it was Job who spoke, cursing the day of his birth. This is what he said:

2. And Job spake, and said,

2.

3. Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night [in which] it was said, There is a man child conceived.

3. Cursed be the day I was born, and the night which whispered: A boy has been conceived.

4. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

4. May that day be dark, may God on high ignore it. May no light shine upon it.

5. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

5. May the shadow of death claim it as its own. May a cloud settle over it; may blackness obstruct its light.

6. As [for] that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

6. Let darkness swallow that night let it not add to the rest of the year let it not be included in the month.

7. Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.

7. That night - oh, let it be barren, untouched by shouts of joy.

8. Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.

8. Let it be cursed by those who hate the light, sorcerers who call on the Devil.

9. Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but [have] none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

9. Let its morning stars no longer shine; let it wait for light in vain and never see the first rays of dawn,

10. Because it shut not up the doors of my [mother's] womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

10. since it did not close the womb to keep my eyes from seeing doom.

11. Why died I not from the womb? [why] did I [not] give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

11. Why didn't I die at birth, or come from the womb without breath?

12. Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?

12. Why the knees that received me, why the breasts that suckled me?

13. For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

13. For then I should have lain down asleep and been at rest

14. With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;

14. with kings and rulers of the earth who built for themselves lonely tombs;

15. Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:

15. or with princes who had gold to spare and houses stuffed with silver.

16. Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants [which] never saw light.

16. Why was I not stillborn, like others who did not see the light of morn?

17. There the wicked cease [from] troubling; and there the weary be at rest.

17. There the trouble of the wicked ceases, there the weary find repose.

18. [There] the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

18. There the prisoners are at ease; they no longer hear the taskmaster's voice.

19. The small and great are there; and the servant [is] free from his master.

19. Great and small fare equally there, where the slave is free from his master.

20. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter [in] soul;

20. Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the embittered?

21. Which long for death, but it [cometh] not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;

21. To those who long for death more than for hidden treasure?

22. Which rejoice exceedingly, [and] are glad, when they can find the grave?

22. They rejoice at the sight of their end, they are happy upon reaching the grave.

23. [Why is light given] to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?

23. Why give light to a man whose path has vanished, whose ways God blocks at every side?

24. For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.

24. Instead of bread I feed on sighs. My groans are like water poured out.

25. For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.

25. For what I fear has come upon me, what I dread has befallen me.

26. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

26. I find no rest, I find no ease; only turmoil, nothing of peace!