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3After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. ²Job said: ³“Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man-child is conceived.’ ⁴Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, or light shine on it. ⁵Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds settle upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. ⁶That 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. ⁷Yes, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry be heard in it. ⁸Let those curse it who curse the Sea, those who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan. ⁹Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none; may it not see the eyelids of the morning— ¹⁰because 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? ¹²Why were there knees to receive me, or breasts for me to suck? ¹³Now I would be lying down and quiet; I would be asleep; then I would be at rest ¹⁴with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuild ruins for themselves, ¹⁵or with princes who have gold, who fill their houses with silver. ¹⁶Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child, like an infant that never sees the light? ¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. ¹⁸There the prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster. ¹⁹The 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, ²¹who long for death, but it does not come, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures; ²²who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they find the grave? ²³Why is light given to one who cannot see the way, whom God has fenced in? ²⁴For my sighing comes like my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. ²⁵Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. ²⁶I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes.”