Job 3:4-26 ▼

4 That day—let it be darkness, || Do not let God require it from above, || Nor let light shine on it.

5 Let darkness and death-shade redeem it, || Let a cloud dwell on it, || Let them terrify it as the most bitter of days.

6 That night—let thick darkness take it, || Let it not be united to days of the year, || Let it not come into the number of months.

7 Behold! That night—let it be barren, || Let no singing come into it.

8 Let the cursers of day mark it, || Who are ready to wake up Leviathan.

9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark, || Let it wait for light, and there is none, || And let it not look on the eyelids of the dawn.

10 Because it has not shut the doors || Of the womb that was mine! And hide misery from my eyes.

11 Why do I not die from the womb? I have come forth from the belly and gasp!

12 Why have knees been before me? And what [are] breasts, that I suck?

13 For now, I have lain down, and am quiet, I have slept—then there is rest to me,

14 With kings and counselors of earth, || These building ruins for themselves.

15 Or with princes—they have gold, || They are filling their houses [with] silver.

16 (Or I am not as a hidden abortion, || As infants—they have not seen light.)

17 There the wicked have ceased troubling, || And there the wearied rest in power.

18 Together prisoners have been at ease, || They have not heard the voice of an exactor,

19 Small and great [are] the same there. And a servant [is] free from his lord.

20 Why does He give light to the miserable, and life to the bitter soul?

21 Who are waiting for death, and it is not, || And they seek it above hid treasures.

22 Who are glad—to joy, || They rejoice when they find a grave.

23 To a man whose way has been hidden, || And whom God shuts up?

24 For before my food, my sighing comes, || And my roarings [are] poured out as waters.

25 For I feared a fear and it meets me, || And what I was afraid of comes to me.

26 I was not safe—nor was I quiet—Nor was I at rest—and trouble comes!”