Job 3

Job’s First Speech

¹At last Job spoke, and he cursed the day of his birth. ²He said:

³“Let the day of my birth be erased,

and the night I was conceived.

⁴Let that day be turned to darkness.

Let it be lost even to God on high,

and let no light shine on it.

⁵Let the darkness and utter gloom claim that day for its own.

Let a black cloud overshadow it,

and let the darkness terrify it.

⁶Let that night be blotted off the calendar,

never again to be counted among the days of the year,

never again to appear among the months.

⁷Let that night be childless.

Let it have no joy.

⁸Let those who are experts at cursing—

whose cursing could rouse Leviathan^a—

curse that day.

⁹Let its morning stars remain dark.

Let it hope for light, but in vain;

may it never see the morning light.

¹⁰Curse that day for failing to shut my mother’s womb,

for letting me be born to see all this trouble.

¹¹“Why wasn’t I born dead?

Why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?

¹²Why was I laid on my mother’s lap?

Why did she nurse me at her breasts?

¹³Had I died at birth, I would now be at peace.

I would be asleep and at rest.

¹⁴I would rest with the world’s kings and prime ministers,

whose great buildings now lie in ruins.

¹⁵I would rest with princes, rich in gold,

whose palaces were filled with silver.

¹⁶Why wasn’t I buried like a stillborn child,

like a baby who never lives to see the light?

¹⁷For in death the wicked cause no trouble,

and the weary are at rest.

¹⁸Even captives are at ease in death,

with no guards to curse them.

¹⁹Rich and poor are both there,

and the slave is free from his master.

²⁰“Oh, why give light to those in misery,

and life to those who are bitter?

²¹They long for death, and it won’t come.

They search for death more eagerly than for hidden treasure.

²²They’re filled with joy when they finally die,

and rejoice when they find the grave.

²³Why is life given to those with no future,

those God has surrounded with difficulties?

²⁴I cannot eat for sighing;

my groans pour out like water.

²⁵What I always feared has happened to me.

What I dreaded has come true.

²⁶I have no peace, no quietness.

I have no rest; only trouble comes.”