Chapter 3

¹ After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day, ² saying,

³ Let the day perish in which I was born, and that night in which they said, Behold a man-child! ⁴ Let that ¹night be darkness, and let not the Lord regard it from above, neither let light come upon it. ⁵ But let darkness and the shadow of death seize it; let blackness come upon it; ^{6 2}let that day and night be cursed, let darkness carry ³them away; let it not come into the days of the year, neither let it be numbered with the days of the months. ⁷ But let that night be pain, and let not mirth come upon it, nor joy. ⁸ But let him that curses that day curse it, even he that is ready to attack the great ⁴whale. ⁹ Let the stars of that night be darkened; let it remain dark, and not come into light; and let it not see the morning star arise: ¹⁰ because it shut not up the gates of my mother's womb, for so it would have removed sorrow from my eyes.

¹¹ For why died I not in the belly? and why did I not come forth from the womb and die immediately? ¹² and why did the knees support me? and why did I suck the breasts? ¹³ Now I should have lain down and been quiet, I should have slept and been at rest, ¹⁴ with kings and councillors of the earth, who gloried in their swords; ¹⁵ or with rulers, whose gold was abundant, who filled their houses with silver: ¹⁶ or I should have been as an untimely birth proceeding from his mother's womb, or as infants who never saw light. ¹⁷ There the ungodly have burnt out the fury of rage; there the wearied in body rest. ¹⁸ And the men of old time have together ceased to hear the exactor's voice. ¹⁹ The small and great are there, and the servant that feared his lord.

²⁰ For why is light given to those who are in bitterness, and life to those souls which are in griefs? ²¹ who desire death, and obtain it not,

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digging for it as for treasures; ²² and would be very joyful if they should gain it? ²³ Death is rest to such a man, for God has hedged him in. ²⁴ For my groaning comes before my food, and I weep being beset with terror. ²⁵ For the terror of which I meditated has come upon me, and that which I had feared has befallen me. ²⁶ I was not at peace, nor quiet, nor had I rest; yet wrath came upon me.