1After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born.

2Job spoke up and said:

3“Let the day on which I was born perish,
and the night that said,
‘A man has been conceived!’

4That day – let it be darkness;
let not God on high regard it,
nor let light shine on it!

5Let darkness and the deepest
shadow claim it;
let a cloud settle on it;
let whatever blackens the day terrify it!

6That night – let darkness seize it;
let it not be included among the days of the year;
let it not enter among the number of the months!

7Indeed, let that night be barren;
let no shout of joy penetrate it!

8Let those who curse the day curse it –
those who are prepared to rouse Leviathan.

9Let its morning stars be darkened;
let it wait for daylight but find none,
nor let it see the first rays of dawn,

10because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb on me,
nor did it hide trouble from my eyes!

Job Wishes He Had Died at Birth

11“Why did I not die at birth,
and why did I not expire
as I came out of the womb?

12Why did the knees welcome me,
and why were there two breasts
that I might nurse at them?

13For now I would be lying down
and would be quiet,
I would be asleep and then at peace

14with kings and counselors of the earth
who built for themselves places now desolate,

15or with princes who possessed gold,
who filled their palaces with silver.

16Or why was I not buried
like a stillborn infant,
like infants who have never seen the light?

17There the wicked cease from turmoil,
and there the weary are at rest.

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

19Small and great are there,
and the slave is free from his master.

Longing for Death

20“Why does God give light to one who is in misery,
and life to those whose soul is bitter,

21to those who wait for death that does not come,
and search for it
more than for hidden treasures,

22who rejoice even to jubilation,
and are exultant when they find the grave?

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

24For my sighing comes in place of my food,
and my groanings flow forth like water.

25For the very thing I dreaded has happened to me,
and what I feared has come upon me.

26I have no ease, I have no quietness;
I cannot rest; turmoil has come upon me.”