1After this Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.
2And Job answered and said:
3"Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night that said, 'A man has been conceived.'
4That day — let it be darkness; let not God seek it from above, and let not light shine upon it.
5Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blacknesses of the day terrify it.
6That night — let thick darkness take it; let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.
7Behold, that night — let it be barren; let no joyful cry come into it.
8Let those curse it who curse the day, those ready to rouse up Leviathan.
9Let the stars of its twilight be dark; let it wait for light, and there be none; and let it not see the eyelids of the dawn.
10Because it did not shut the doors of my womb, and did not hide trouble from my eyes.
11Why did I not die from the womb? From the belly I came out, and should have expired?
12Why did the knees receive me? And why the breasts, that I should suck?
13For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then there would be rest for me,
14with kings and counselors of the earth, who built ruins for themselves,
15or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;
16or like a hidden untimely birth I would not be, like infants who never saw light.
17There the wicked cease from raging; and there rest the weary of strength.
18Together the prisoners are at ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
19The small and the great are there; and the servant is free from his masters.
20Why is light given to the toiler, and life (chai) to the bitter of soul (nephesh),
21who wait for death, and it is not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
22who rejoice to exultation, are glad when they find the grave?
23To a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged about?
24For before my bread my sighing comes, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
25For a dread I dreaded, and it came upon me; and what I feared has come to me.
26I was not at ease, and I was not quiet, and I had no rest; but raging came.