3:1 Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed ①the day of his birth.
▷ ①Lit his day
3:2 And Job ①said,
▷ ①Lit answered and said
3:3 “May the day on which I was to be born perish,
As well as the night which said, ‘A ①boy is conceived.’
▷ ①Lit man-child
3:4 May that day be darkness;
May God above not care for it,
Nor light shine on it.
3:5 May darkness and black gloom claim it;
May a cloud settle on it;
May the blackness of the day terrify it.
3:6 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.
3:7 Behold, may that night be barren;
May no joyful shout enter it.
3:8 May those curse it who curse the day,
Who are ①prepared to disturb Leviathan.
▷ ①Or skillful
3:9 May the stars of its twilight be darkened;
May it wait for light but have none,
And may it not see the ①breaking dawn;
▷ ①Lit eyelids of dawn
3:10 Because it did not shut the opening of my mother’s womb,
Or hide trouble from my eyes.
3:11 “Why did I not die ①at birth,
Come out of the womb and pass away?
▷ ①Lit from the womb
3:12 Why were the knees there in front of me,
And why the breasts, that I would nurse?
3:13 For now I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept then, I would have been at rest,
3:14 With kings and counselors of the earth,
Who rebuilt ruins for themselves;
3:15 Or with rulers who had gold,
Who were filling their houses with silver.
3:16 Or like a miscarriage which is ①hidden, I would not exist,
As infants that never saw light.
▷ ①I.e., buried
3:17 There the wicked cease from raging,
And there the ①weary are at rest.
▷ ①Lit weary of strength
3:18 The prisoners are at ease together;
They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
3:19 The small and the great are there,
And the slave is free from his master.
3:20 “Why is light given to one burdened with grief,
And life to the bitter of soul,
3:21 Who ①long for death, but there is none,
And dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
▷ ①Lit wait
3:22 Who are filled with jubilation,
And rejoice when they find the grave?
3:23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
And whom God has shut off?
3:24 For my groaning comes at the sight of my food,
And my cries pour out like water.
3:25 For ①what I fear comes upon me,
And what I dread ②encounters me.
▷ ①Lit I fear a fear, and it comes ②Lit comes to me
3:26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet,
And I am not at rest, but turmoil comes.”