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Job Curses the Day He Was Born

3After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. ²Job 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 be darkness!
   May God above not seek it,
   or light shine on it.
⁵ Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
   Let clouds settle 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 Yes, let that night be barren;
   let no joyful cry be heard^* in it.
⁸ Let those curse it who curse the Sea,^*
   those who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan.
⁹ Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
   let it hope for light, but have none;
   may it not see the eyelids of the morning—
¹⁰ because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
   and hide trouble from my eyes.

Eliphaz Speaks: Job Has Sinned

4Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
² ‘If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?
   But who can keep from speaking?
³ See, you have instructed many;
   you have strengthened the weak hands.
⁴ Your words have supported those who were stumbling,
   and you have made firm the feeble knees.
⁵ But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
   it touches you, and you are dismayed.
⁶ Is not your fear of God your confidence,
   and the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷ ‘Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?
   Or where were the upright cut off?
⁸ As I have seen, those who plough iniquity
   and sow trouble reap the same.
⁹ By the breath of God they perish,
   and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
¹¹ ‘Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;
   I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
   I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
¹² Am I the Sea, or the Dragon,
   that you set a guard over me?
¹³ When I say, “My bed will comfort me,
   my couch will ease my complaint”,
¹⁴ then you scare me with dreams
   and terrify me with visions,
¹⁵ so that I would choose strangling
   and death rather than this body.
¹⁶ I loathe my life; I would not live for ever.
   Let me alone, for my days are a breath.
¹⁷ What are human beings, that you make so much of them,
   that you set your mind on them,
¹⁸ visit them every morning,
   test them every moment?
¹⁹ Will you not look away from me for a while,
   let me alone until I swallow my spittle?
²⁰ If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity?
   Why have you made me your target?
   Why have I become a burden to you?
²¹ Why do you not pardon my transgression
   and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
   you will seek me, but I shall not be.’