[1] After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. [2]
And Job said: [3] "Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night
which said, ` man-child is conceived.' [4] Let that day be darkness! May
God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it. [5] Let gloom and deep
darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day
terrify it. [6] That night--let thick darkness seize it! let it not rejoice
among the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
[7] Yea, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry be heard in it. [8]
Let those curse it who curse the day, who are skilled to rouse up
Levi'athan. [9] Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light,
but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning; [10] because it did not
shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes. [11]
"Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire? [12] Why
did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck? [13] For
then I should have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then I
should have been at rest, [14] with kings and counselors of the earth who
rebuilt ruins for themselves, [15] or with princes who had gold, who filled
their houses with silver. [16] Or why was I not as a hidden untimely birth,
as infants that never see the light? [17] There the wicked cease from
troubling, and there the weary are at rest. [18] There the prisoners are at
ease together; they hear not 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 that is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,
[21] who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hid
treasures; [22] who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they find the
grave? [23] Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom God has
hedged in? [24] For my sighing comes as my bread, and my groanings are
poured out like water. [25] For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and
what I dread befalls me. [26] I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no
rest; but trouble comes."
