1After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

2And Job spake, and said, ¹⁷

3Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.

4Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

5Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. ¹⁸¹⁹

6As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months. ²⁰

7Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.

8Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning. ²¹

9Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day: ²²

10Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

11Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

12Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?

13For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

14With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;

15Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:

16Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.

17There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. ²³

18There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

19The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.

20Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;

21Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures; ²⁴

22Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

23Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?

24For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters. ²⁵

25For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. ²⁶

26I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.