Job 3

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¹After this Job began speaking, cursing the day of his birth.

²He said,

³“Wipe out the day I was born, and the night when it was announced that a boy had been conceived.

⁴Turn that day to darkness. God above should not remember it. Don't let light shine on it.

⁵Take it back, darkness and death-shadow. A black cloud should overshadow it. It should be as terrifying as the darkness of an eclipse during the day.

⁶Blot out that night as if it never existed. Don't count it on the calendar. Don't let it have a day in any month.

⁷Let that night be childless, with no sounds of happiness heard.

⁸Those who place curses on certain days should curse it, those who have the power to raise Leviathan.

⁹Its early morning stars should stay dark. Looking for light, may none come, may it not see the glimmer of dawn

¹⁰for it did not shut my mother's womb to prevent me from seeing trouble.

¹¹Why wasn't I stillborn? Why didn't I die at birth?

¹²Why was there a lap for me to lie on, or breasts for me to suck?

¹³For now I would be lying down in peace. I would be sleeping and at rest,

¹⁴along with the kings of this world and their officials whose palaces now lie in ruins,

¹⁵or with noblemen who collected gold and filled their houses with silver.

¹⁶Why wasn't I a miscarriage, buried in secret, a baby who never saw the light?

¹⁷There in the grave the wicked give no more trouble, and those whose strength is gone have their rest.

¹⁸There prisoners take it easy—they don't hear the commands of their oppressors.

¹⁹Both small and great are there, and slaves are freed from their masters.

²⁰Why does God give life to those who are suffering, living bitterly miserable lives,

²¹those who are waiting for death that does not come and who are looking for death more desperately than hunting for treasure?

²²They're so incredibly happy when the reach the grave!

²³Why is light given to someone who doesn't know where they're going, someone God has fenced in?

²⁴My groans are the bread I eat; my raging tears are the water I drink.

²⁵For all that I feared has happened to me; everything that I dreaded has come upon me.

²⁶I have no peace, no quiet, no rest. All that comes is rage.”