Read the Bible

¹ AFTER this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day wherein he was born.² Then Job spoke and said,³ Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, A male child is conceived.⁴ Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.⁵ Let the darkness and the shadow of death cover it; let a cloud overshadow it; let those whose days are bitter be terrified by it.⁶ As for that night, let thick darkness cover it; let that day not be reckoned in the number of the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.⁷ Lo, let that night be desolate, let no voice of praise come therein.⁸ Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to stir up Leviathan.⁹ Let the stars of twilight thereof be dark; let the people wait for light, but receive none; neither let them see the dawning of the day;¹⁰ Because it did not shut the doors of my mothers womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹ Why did I not die from the womb? Why did I come forth at birth?¹² Why was I reared at my mothers knee? Why did I suck the breasts?¹³ For now I should have been laid in the grave and been quiet, I should have slept; then I should have been at rest,¹⁴ With kings and governors of the earth who built desolate places for themselves;¹⁵ Or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;¹⁶ Or like a hidden untimely birth, as if I had not been; like infants that never saw the light.¹⁷ There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary are at rest.¹⁸ There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.¹⁹ The small and the great are there; and the servant is free from his master.

²⁰ Why is light given to him who is in trouble, and life to the bitter in soul,²¹ Who long for death, but it comes not, and seek it as one seeks a hidden treasure;²² Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave?²³ Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom God has hedged in?²⁴ For my sighing comes before I eat, and my moanings are poured out like water.²⁵ For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of has befallen me.²⁶ I am not at ease, neither am I calm, nor am I at rest; and yet misfortune came.