1After this, Job spoke up solemnly, cursinga the day he was born.b 2This is what Job said:

3“Let the day when I was born be annihilated,

along with the night when it was announced,

‘It’s a boy!’c

4Let that day be dark;

let God above not care about it;

let no light shine over it.

5Let darkness and deep gloom reclaim it;

let clouds settle down on it;

let blackness in mid-day terrify it.

6Let darkness carry that night away;

let it not take its place joyfully among the days of the year;

let it not be entered into the calendar.d

7“Yes, let that night be barren;

let it not appear with its joyful shout.

8Let whoever curses days curse it—

those who are ready to awaken monsters.e

9Let the stars of its evening twilight be dark;

let it hope for light but let there be none;

let it not see the breaking raysf of the dawn.

10“Because that nightg refused to shut the doors of my mother’sh womb;

it failed to keep me from seeing this trouble.

11Why didn’t I die while I was still in the womb,

or die while I was being born?

12Why was there a lapi to hold me,

and why were there breasts to nurse me?

13“If I had died,j I would be lying down by now,

undisturbed, asleep, and at rest,

14along with kings and counselors of the earth,

who used to build for themselves what are now onlyk ruins,

15or princes who amassedl gold for themselves,

and who kept filling their houses with silver.

16“Or why was I not buriedm like a stillborn child,n

like babieso who never saw the light?

17In that place, the wicked stop causing trouble,

and there, those whose strength is exhausted are at rest.

18In that place, those who once were prisoners will be at ease together;

they won’t hear the voice of oppressors.

19The unimportant and the important are both there,

and the servant is free from his master.

20“Why does Godp give light to the sufferer

or life to the bitter person:

21To those who are longing for death—

even though it does not come?

To those who search for it

more than for hidden treasure?

22To those who are happy beyond measureq

when they reach their graves?

23To the formerly successfulr man who lost his way in life,

and God fenced him in?

24“As far as I’m concerned, my food comes to me in the form of sighs,

and my cries of anguish pour out like water.

25For the dreaded thing that I feared has happened to me,

what caused me to worry has engulfeds me.

26I will not be at ease;

I will not be quiet;

I will not rest;

because trouble has arrived.”