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Job's Lament

¹ After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.^2 (F1)And Job said,

³ "^(C1)Let the day on which I was born perish,
And the night which announced: 'There is a man-child conceived.'

⁴ "May that day be darkness;
Let God above not care about it,
Nor light shine on it.

⁵ "Let ^(C1)darkness and gloom claim it for their own;
Let a cloud settle upon it;
Let all that blackens the day terrify it (the day that I was born).

⁶ "As for that night, let darkness seize it;
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
Let it not be counted in the number of the months.

⁷ "Behold, let that night be barren and empty;
Let no joyful voice enter it.

⁸ "Let those curse it ^(F1)who curse the day,
Who are skilled in ^(C1)rousing up Leviathan.

⁹ "Let the stars of its early dawn be dark;
Let the morning wait in vain for the light,
Let it not see the eyelids of morning (the day's dawning),

¹⁰ Because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb,
Nor hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹ "^(C1)Why did I not die at birth,
Come forth from the womb and expire?

¹² "Why did the knees receive me?
And why the breasts, that I would nurse?

¹³ "For now ^(C1)I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept then, I would have been at rest in death,

¹⁴ With ^(C1)kings and ^(C2)counselors of the earth,
Who built up now desolate ^(C3)ruins for themselves;

¹⁵ Or with ^(C1)princes ^(C2)who had gold,
Who filled their houses with silver.

¹⁶ "Or like a miscarriage which is hidden and put away, I would not exist,
Like infants who never saw light.

¹⁷ "There in death the wicked cease from raging,
And there the weary are at ^(C1)rest.

¹⁸ "There the prisoners rest together;
They do not hear the taskmaster's voice.

¹⁹ "The small and the great are there,
And the servant is free from his master. ^(VR1)

²⁰ "Why is the ^(C1)light given to him who is in misery,
And life to the bitter in soul,

²¹ Who ^(C1)wait for death, but it does not come,
And dig (search) for death more diligently than for ^(C2)hidden treasures,

²² Who rejoice exceedingly,
And rejoice when they find the grave?

²³ "Why is the light of day given to a man ^(C1)whose way is hidden,
And whom ^(C2)God has hedged in?

²⁴ "For ^(C1)my groaning comes at the sight of my food,
And ^(C2)my cries of despair are poured out like water.

²⁵ "For ^(C1)the thing which I greatly fear comes upon me,
And that of which I am afraid has come upon me.

²⁶ "I ^(C1)am not at ease, nor am I quiet,
And I am not at rest, and yet trouble still comes upon me."