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¹ After this Job has opened his mouth, and reviles his day.² And Job answers and says:³ "Let the day perish in which I am born, || And the night that has said: A man-child has been conceived.⁴ That day—let it be darkness, || Do not let God require it from above, || Nor let light shine on it.⁵ Let darkness and death-shade redeem it, || Let a cloud dwell on it, || Let them terrify it as the most bitter of days.⁶ That night—let thick darkness take it, || Let it not be united to days of the year, || Let it not come into the number of months.⁷ Behold! That night—let it be barren, || Let no singing come into it.⁸ Let the cursers of day mark it, || Who are ready to wake up Leviathan.⁹ Let the stars of its twilight be dark, || Let it wait for light, and there is none, || And let it not look on the eyelids of the dawn.¹⁰ Because it has not shut the doors || Of the womb that was mine! And hide misery from my eyes.

¹¹ Why do I not die from the womb? I have come forth from the belly and gasp!¹² Why have knees been before me? And what [are] breasts, that I suck?¹³ For now, I have lain down, and am quiet, I have slept—then there is rest to me,¹⁴ With kings and counselors of earth, || These building ruins for themselves.¹⁵ Or with princes—they have gold, || They are filling their houses [with] silver.¹⁶ (Or I am not as a hidden abortion, || As infants—they have not seen light.)¹⁷ There the wicked have ceased troubling, || And there the wearied rest in power.¹⁸ Together prisoners have been at ease, || They have not heard the voice of an exactor,¹⁹ Small and great [are] the same there. And a servant [is] free from his lord.

²⁰ Why does He give light to the miserable, and life to the bitter soul?²¹ Who are waiting for death, and it is not, || And they seek it above hid treasures.²² Who are glad—to joy, || They rejoice when they find a grave.²³ To a man whose way has been hidden, || And whom God shuts up?²⁴ For before my food, my sighing comes, || And my roarings [are] poured out as waters.²⁵ For I feared a fear and it meets me, || And what I was afraid of comes to me.²⁶ I was not safe—nor was I quiet—Nor was I at rest—and trouble comes!"