[1] After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth. [2] Job said: [3] "Let the day perish in which I was born and the night in which it was said, 'A male child is conceived.' [4] As for that day, let it be darkness; let God above not regard it; and let not light shine upon it. [5] Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it; let a cloud settle on it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. [6] As for that night, let darkness capture it; let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months. [7] Yes, as for that night, let it be barren! Let no joyful cry come into it! [8] Let them curse it who curse any day, those who are prepared to rouse Leviathan. [9] Let its morning stars be dark; let it look for light, but have none; let it not see the rays of dawn, [10] because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes. [11] "Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not expire when I came out of the womb? [12] Why did her knees receive me? And why her breasts that I should nurse? [13] For now I would be lying down and would be at peace; I would have slept; then there would be rest for me, [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 will have stopped causing trouble, and there the exhausted will rest. [18] Captives will relax together; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor. [19] The small and great, they are there, and the servant is free from his master. [20] "Why is light given to the miserable, and life unto the bitter in soul, [21] who look for death, but it is not there; and they search for it more than for hidden treasures; [22] who rejoice exceedingly, and they are glad when they find the grave? [23] And why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? [24] For my sighing comes before I eat, and my groaning pours forth like the waters. [25] For the thing which I greatly feared has happened to me, and that which I dreaded has come to me. [26] I am not at peace; I have no quiet, I cannot rest, and turmoil has come."
