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Job Speaks Angry Words to God

¹ After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born. ² He said, ³ "Let the day be lost on which I was born, and the night which said, ‘A boy is born.' ⁴ May that day be darkness. May God above not care for it. May light not shine on it. ⁵ Let darkness and a heavy shadow take it for their own. Let a cloud come upon it. Let the darkness of the day bring fear upon it. ⁶ As for that night, let darkness take hold of it. Let it not have joy among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of months. ⁷ Yes, let that night be alone and empty. Let no sound of joy come into it. ⁸ Let those curse it who curse the day, who are able to wake up the Leviathan. ⁹ Let the early morning stars be made dark. Let it wait for light but have none. Do not let it see the light of day. ¹⁰ Because it did not keep my mother from giving birth to me, or hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹ "Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not come from my mother and die? ¹² Why did the knees receive me, or why the breasts, that I should have milk? ¹³ For now I would have lain down and been quiet. I would have slept then. I would have been at rest, ¹⁴ with kings and wise men of the earth who built cities for themselves that are now destroyed. ¹⁵ I would have been at rest with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. ¹⁶ Why did I not die before I was born, hidden and put away, as babies that never see the light? ¹⁷ There the troubles of the sinful stop. There the tired are at rest. ¹⁸ Those in prison are at rest together. They do not hear the voice of the one who rules over their work. ¹⁹ The small and the great are there. And the servant is free from his owner.

²⁰ "Why is light given to him who suffers? Why is life given to those who feel sad in their soul? ²¹ They wait for death, but there is none. They dig for it more than for hidden riches. ²² They are filled with much joy and are glad, when they find the grave. ²³ Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and around whom God has built a wall? ²⁴ For I cry inside myself in front of my food. My cries pour out like water. ²⁵ What I was afraid of has come upon me. What filled me with fear has happened. ²⁶ I am not at rest, and I am not quiet. I have no rest, but only trouble."