Job

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Job Regrets His Birth

3 
Afterward[a] Job opened his mouth and cursed[b] his day. 2 Thus[c] Job spoke up[d] and said,
3 “Let the day perish on which I was born,

and the night that said, ‘A man-child is conceived.’

4 Let that day become[e] darkness;

may God not seek it from above,

nor may daylight shine on it.

5 Let darkness and deep shadow claim it;

let clouds[f] settle on it;

let them[g] terrify it with the blackness[h] of day.

6 Let darkness seize that night;[i]

let it not rejoice among the days of the year;

let it not enter among the number of the months.

7 Look, let that night become[j] barren;

let a joyful song not enter it.

8 Let those who curse the day curse it,

those who are skilled at rousing Leviathan.

9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark;

let it hope for light but[k] there be none,

and let it not see the eyelids of dawn

10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,

nor[l] did it hide trouble from my eyes.

Job Wishes He Had Died

11 “Why did I not die at[m] birth?

Why did I not come forth from the womb and expire?

12 Why did the knees receive me

and the breasts, that I could suck?

13 For now I would lie down, and I would be at peace;

I would be asleep; then I would be at rest[n]

14 with kings and counselors of the earth,

who rebuild [o] ruins for themselves,

15 or with high officials who have gold,[p]

who fill up their houses with silver.

16 Or why was I not hidden like a miscarriage,

like infants who did not see the light?

17 There the wicked cease from troubling,

and there the weary[q] are at rest;

18 the prisoners are at ease together;

they do not hear the oppressor’s voice.

19 The small and the great are there,

and the slave is free from his masters.[r]

Job Wishes He Might Die

20 “Why does he[s] give light to one in misery

and life to those bitter of soul,

21 who wait for death, but[t] it does not come,[u]

and search[v] for it more than for treasures,

22 who rejoice exceedingly,[w]

and they are glad when they find the grave?

23 Why does he[x] give light to a man whose way is hidden,

and God has fenced him in all around?

24 For[y] my sighing comes before[z] my bread,[aa]

and my groanings gush forth like water

25 because the dread that I feel[ab] has come upon me,

and what I feared befalls me.

26 I am not at ease, and I am not at peace,

and I do not have rest, thus[ac] turmoil has come.”

Footnotes

  1. Job 3:1 Literally “After thus”
  2. Job 3:1 A different term than that employed in 1:5, 11; 2:5, 9
  3. Job 3:2 Hebrew “And”
  4. Job 3:2 Literally “answered”
  5. Job 3:4 Or “be”
  6. Job 3:5 Literally “cloud”
  7. Job 3:5 Masculine plural referring to all three entities mentioned in this verse
  8. Job 3:5 Literally “blacknesses”
  9. Job 3:6 Literally “That night, let darkness seize it”
  10. Job 3:7 Or “be”
  11. Job 3:9 Hebrew “and”
  12. Job 3:10 Hebrew “And”
  13. Job 3:11 Literally “from”
  14. Job 3:13 Literally “it would be at rest for me”
  15. Job 3:14 Literally “build”
  16. Job 3:15 Literally “gold is for them”
  17. Job 3:17 Literally “weary of strength”
  18. Job 3:19 Or “master”
  19. Job 3:20 Most likely God
  20. Job 3:21 Hebrew “and”
  21. Job 3:21 Literally “it is not”
  22. Job 3:21 Or “dig”
  23. Job 3:22 Literally “unto rejoicing”
  24. Job 3:23 Most likely God
  25. Job 3:24 Or perhaps emphatic, “Indeed”
  26. Job 3:24 Or “in place of” (NET); literally “to the faces of”
  27. Job 3:24 Or “food”
  28. Job 3:25 Literally “dread”
  29. Job 3:26 Hebrew “and”