[1] After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
[2] And Job spoke, and said:
[3] “May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.’
[4] May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, Nor the light shine upon it.
[5] May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it.
[6] As for that night, may darkness seize it; May it not rejoice among the days of the year, May it not come into the number of the months.
[7] Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it!
[8] May those curse it who curse the day, Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan.
[9] May the stars of its morning be dark; May it look for light, but have none, And not see the dawning of the day;
[10] Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.
[11] “Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?
[12] Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
[13] For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest
[14] With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built ruins for themselves,
[15] Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with silver;
[16] Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, Like infants who never saw light?
[17] There the wicked cease from troubling, And there the weary are at rest.
[18] There the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
[19] The small and great are there, And the servant is free from his master.
[20] “Why is light given to him who is in misery, And life to the bitter of soul,
[21] Who long for death, but it does not come, And search for it more than hidden treasures;
[22] Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad when they can find the grave?
[23] Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God has hedged in?
[24] For my sighing comes before I eat, And my groanings pour out like water.
[25] For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.
[26] I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes.”