Job Regrets His Birth
3 Afterward[a] Job opened his mouth and cursed[b] his day. 2 Thus[c] Job spoke up[d] and said,
3 “Let the day perish on which I was born,
and the night that said, ‘A man-child is conceived.’
4 Let that day become[e] darkness;
may God not seek it from above,
nor may daylight shine on it.
5 Let darkness and deep shadow claim it;
let clouds[f] settle on it;
let them[g] terrify it with the blackness[h] of day.
6 Let darkness seize that night;[i]
let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
let it not enter among the number of the months.
7 Look, let that night become[j] barren;
let a joyful song not enter it.
8 Let those who curse the day curse it,
those who are skilled at rousing Leviathan.
9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
let it hope for light but[k] there be none,
and let it not see the eyelids of dawn
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor[l] did it hide trouble from my eyes.
Job Wishes He Had Died
11 “Why did I not die at[m] birth?
Why did I not come forth from the womb and expire?
12 Why did the knees receive me
and the breasts, that I could suck?
13 For now I would lie down, and I would be at peace;
I would be asleep; then I would be at rest[n]
14 with kings and counselors of the earth,
who rebuild [o] ruins for themselves,
15 or with high officials who have gold,[p]
who fill up their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not hidden like a miscarriage,
like infants who did not see the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary[q] are at rest;
18 the prisoners are at ease together;
they do not hear the oppressor’s voice.
19 The small and the great are there,
and the slave is free from his masters.[r]
Job Wishes He Might Die
20 “Why does he[s] give light to one in misery
and life to those bitter of soul,
21 who wait for death, but[t] it does not come,[u]
and search[v] for it more than for treasures,
22 who rejoice exceedingly,[w]
and they are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why does he[x] give light to a man whose way is hidden,
and God has fenced him in all around?
24 For[y] my sighing comes before[z] my bread,[aa]
and my groanings gush forth like water
25 because the dread that I feel[ab] has come upon me,
and what I feared befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, and I am not at peace,
and I do not have rest, thus[ac] turmoil has come.”
Footnotes
- Job 3:1 Literally “After thus”
- Job 3:1 A different term than that employed in 1:5, 11; 2:5, 9
- Job 3:2 Hebrew “And”
- Job 3:2 Literally “answered”
- Job 3:4 Or “be”
- Job 3:5 Literally “cloud”
- Job 3:5 Masculine plural referring to all three entities mentioned in this verse
- Job 3:5 Literally “blacknesses”
- Job 3:6 Literally “That night, let darkness seize it”
- Job 3:7 Or “be”
- Job 3:9 Hebrew “and”
- Job 3:10 Hebrew “And”
- Job 3:11 Literally “from”
- Job 3:13 Literally “it would be at rest for me”
- Job 3:14 Literally “build”
- Job 3:15 Literally “gold is for them”
- Job 3:17 Literally “weary of strength”
- Job 3:19 Or “master”
- Job 3:20 Most likely God
- Job 3:21 Hebrew “and”
- Job 3:21 Literally “it is not”
- Job 3:21 Or “dig”
- Job 3:22 Literally “unto rejoicing”
- Job 3:23 Most likely God
- Job 3:24 Or perhaps emphatic, “Indeed”
- Job 3:24 Or “in place of” (NET); literally “to the faces of”
- Job 3:24 Or “food”
- Job 3:25 Literally “dread”
- Job 3:26 Hebrew “and”