[1] Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
[2] And Job said,
[3] “Let the day perish on which I was to be born, And the night which said, ‘A boy is conceived.’
[4] May that day be darkness; Let not God above care for it, Nor light shine on it.
[5] Let darkness and black gloom claim it; Let a cloud settle on it; Let the blackness of the day terrify it.
[6] As for that night, let darkness seize it; Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not come into the number of the months.
[7] Behold, let that night be barren; Let no joyful shout enter it.
[8] Let those curse it who curse the day, Who are prepared to rouse Leviathan.
[9] Let the stars of its twilight be darkened; Let it wait for light but have none, And let it not see the breaking dawn;
[10] Because it did not shut the opening of my mother's womb, Or hide trouble from my eyes.
[11] Why did I not die at birth, Come forth from the womb and expire?
[12] Why did the knees receive me, And why the breasts, that I should suck?
[13] For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then, I would have been at rest,
[14] With kings and with counselors of the earth, Who rebuilt ruins for themselves;
[15] Or with princes who had gold, Who were filling their houses with silver.
[16] Or like a miscarriage which is discarded, I would not be, As infants that never saw light.
[17] There the wicked cease from raging, And there the weary are at rest.
[18] The prisoners are at ease together; They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
[19] The small and the great are there, And the slave is free from his master.
[20] Why is light given to him who suffers, And life to the bitter of soul,
[21] Who long for death, but there is none, And dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
[22] Who rejoice greatly, And exult when they find the grave?
[23] Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God has hedged in?
[24] For my groaning comes at the sight of my food, And my cries pour out like water.
[25] For what I fear comes upon me, And what I dread befalls me.
[26] I am not at ease, nor am I quiet, And I am not at rest, but turmoil comes.”