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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.

¹¹ ‘Why did I not die at birth,
   come forth from the womb and expire?
¹² Why were there knees to receive me,
   or breasts for me to suck?
¹³ Now I would be lying down and quiet;
   I would be asleep; then I would be at rest
¹⁴ with kings and counsellors of the earth
   who rebuild ruins for themselves,
¹⁵ or with princes who have gold,
   who fill their houses with silver.
¹⁶ Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child,
   like an infant that never sees the light?
¹⁷ There the wicked cease from troubling,
   and there the weary are at rest.
¹⁸ There 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 slaves are free from their masters.

²⁰ ‘Why is light given to one in misery,
   and life to the bitter in soul,
²¹ who long for death, but it does not come,
   and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
²² who rejoice exceedingly,
   and are glad when they find the grave?
²³ Why is light given to one who cannot see the way,
   whom God has fenced in?
²⁴ For my sighing comes like^* my bread,
   and my groanings are poured out like water.
²⁵ Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me,
   and what I dread befalls me.
²⁶ I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
   I have no rest; but trouble comes.’