1 Job Deplores His Birth After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
2 And Job spoke, and said:
3 “May Job 10:18, 19; Jer. 20:14–18 the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.’
4 May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, Nor the light shine upon it.
5 May darkness and Job 10:21, 22; Jer. 13:16; Amos 5:8 the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 As for that night, may darkness seize it; May it not rejoice among the days of the year, May it not come into the number of the months.
7 Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it!
8 May those curse it who curse the day, Those Jer. 9:17 who are ready to arouse Leviathan.
9 May the stars of its morning be dark; May it look for light, but have none, And not see the dawning of the day;
10 Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.
11 “Why Job 10:18, 19 did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?
12 Gen. 30:3 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest
14 With kings and counselors of the earth, Who Job 15:28; Is. 58:12 built ruins for themselves,
15 Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with silver;
16 Or why was I not hidden Ps. 58:8 like a stillborn child, Like infants who never saw light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling, And there the weary are at Job 17:16 rest.
18 There the prisoners rest together; Job 39:7 They do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
19 The small and great are there, And the servant is free from his master.
20 “Why Jer. 20:18 is light given to him who is in misery, And life to the 2 Kin. 4:27 bitter of soul,
21 Who Rev. 9:6 long for death, but it does not come, And search for it more than Prov. 2:4 hidden treasures;
22 Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad when they can find the Job 7:15, 16 grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, Job 19:8; Ps. 88:8; Lam. 3:7 And whom God has hedged in?
24 For my sighing comes before I eat, And my groanings pour out like water.
25 For the thing I greatly (Job 9:28; 30:15) feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes.”