Job 3 — Legacy Standard Bible

Job Curses the Day of His Birth

3Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed ¹the day of his birth. ²And Job answered and said,

³“^aLet the day perish on which I was to be born,And the night which said, ‘A man is conceived.’⁴“May that day be darkness;Let not God seek it from above,Nor light shine on it.⁵“Let ^adarkness and shadow of death redeem it;Let a cloud dwell upon it;Let the blackness of the day terrify it.⁶“As for that night, let thick darkness take it;Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;Let it not come into the number of the months.⁷“Behold, let that night be barren;Let no joyful shout enter it.⁸“Let those curse it who curse the day,Who are ¹ready to ^arouse Leviathan.⁹“Let the stars of its twilight be darkened;Let it hope for light but have none,And let it not see the ¹breaking dawn,¹⁰Because it did not shut the opening of my mother’s ¹body,Or hide trouble from my eyes.¹¹“^aWhy did I not die from the womb,Come forth from the womb and breathe my last?¹²“Why did the knees receive me,And why the breasts, that I should suck?¹³“For now I ^awould have lain down and been quiet;I would have slept then; it would have been rest to me,¹⁴With ^akings and with ^bcounselors of the earth,Who rebuilt ^cwaste places for themselves,¹⁵Or with ^aprinces ^bwho had gold,Who were filling their houses with silver.¹⁶“Or why was I not like a miscarriage hidden away,As infants that never saw light?¹⁷“There the wicked cease from raging,And there the weary of strength are at ^arest.¹⁸“The prisoners are at ease together;They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.¹⁹“The small and the great are there,And the slave is free from his master.²⁰“Why is ^alight given to him who is troubled,And life to the bitter of soul,²¹Who ¹^,^along for death, but there is none,And dig for it more than for ^bhidden treasures,²²Who are glad with joy,And rejoice when they find the grave?²³“Why is light given to a man ^awhose way is hidden,And whom ^bGod has hedged in?²⁴“For ^amy groaning comes at the sight of my food,And ^bmy roaring pours out like water.²⁵“For ^athe dread that I dread comes upon me,And what I am afraid of befalls me.²⁶“I ^aam not complacent, nor am I quiet,And I am not at rest, and raging comes.”