1After a week of silence, Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day (of his birth). 2And Job said, 3“Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night in which it was said, ‘There is a male child conceived’. 4Let that day be darkness; let God not regard it from above, nor let the light shine upon it. 5Let darkness and the gloom of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. 6As for that night, let darkness seize it; let it not be joined to the days of the year, let it not be counted among the months. 7Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come in it. 8Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning. 9Let the stars of its twilight be dark; let it look for light, but have none; nor let it see the dawning of the day, 10Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from my eyes.

11“Why did I not die from the womb? Why did I not expire when I came out of my mother's body? 12Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? 13For now would I have lain still and been quiet, I would have slept; then had I been at rest, 14With kings and counselors of the earth, who built now desolate places for themselves; 15Or with leaders that had gold, who filled their houses with silver; 16Or I had not been as an hidden untimely birth; as (miscarried) infants who never saw light. 17There (in death) the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. 18There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. 19The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master.

20“Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter souls, 21Who long for death, but it comes not, and dig (search) for it more than for hidden treasures, 22Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave? 23Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in? 24For my sighing comes before I eat, and my groanings are poured out like the waters. 25For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. 26I was not in safety, nor had I rest, nor was I quiet; yet trouble came.”