Job Chapter 3

1 Afterward Job cursed the day he was born: [ 2 ]

3 “Perish the day I was born,

                        the night I was conceived.

                  4 May that be a dark day;

                        let God above not care about it

                        or any light shine on it.

                  5 Let darkness and gloom claim it,

                        dark clouds cover it, and darkness make it terrifying.

                  6 Let darkness seize that night;

                        let it not celebrate among the days of the year

                        or be counted among the months.

                  7 Let that night be barren,

                        and no joyful shout be heard in it.

                  8 Let them curse it who curse the daytime,

                        who dare to arouse Leviathan.

                  9 Let its morning stars be blacked out;

                              let it hope for light, but not get any,

                              or see the eyelids of the morning;

                        10 because it didn’t shut my mother’s womb

                              or hide trouble from me.                                

Job 3:1-10

                  11 “Why didn’t I die at birth—

                         just come out of the womb and die?

                  12 Why did the knees receive me

                        and the breasts that nursed me?

                  13 Then I would’ve lain down in peace;                     

                              I would’ve slept and been at rest

                        14 with kings and advisors

                              that rebuilt ruins for themselves,

                        15 with rulers that had gold

                              and filled their houses with silver.

                  16 Why wasn’t I a miscarriage that was discarded,

                        that never saw the light of day?

                  17 Sinners stop raging in death,

                        and the weary rest.

                  18 Captives are at ease together;

                        they don’t hear a taskmaster.

                  19 The least and the greatest are there;

                        slaves are free from their masters.                      

Job 3:11-19

                  20 “Why does light come to those who are suffering,

                              and life to the bitter;

                        21 to people who long for death and it doesn’t come,

                              who dig for it more than for hidden treasure;

                        22 who celebrate greatly,

                              glad to find the grave?

                  23 Why is light given to someone with no future,

                        someone God has hemmed in with difficulties?

                  24 I sigh at the sight of food

                              and pour out groans like water;

                        25 because what I’m afraid of comes at me,

                              and what I dread happens to me.

                  26 I’m not at ease, I’m not at peace;

From the CYV translation by Virgil Warren, PhD