Job 3

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

³ “Let the day perish in which I was born,
    and the night that said,
    ‘A male is conceived.’^(A)
4 Let that day be darkness!
    May God above not seek it
    or light shine on it.
⁵ Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
    Let clouds settle upon it;
    let the blackness of the day terrify it.^(B)
6 That night—let thick darkness seize it!
    let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
    let it not come into the number of the months.^(C)
7 Yes, let that night be barren;
    let no joyful cry be heard^[a] in it.
⁸ Let those curse it who curse the Sea,^[b]
    those who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan.^(D)
9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
    let it hope for light but have none;
    may it not see the eyelids of the morning—^(E)
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb
    and hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹ “Why did I not die at birth,
    come forth from the womb and expire?^(F)
12 Why were there knees to receive me
    or breasts for me to suck?^(G)
13 Now I would be lying down and quiet;
    I would be asleep; then I would be at rest
¹⁴ with kings and counselors of the earth
    who rebuild ruins for themselves,^(H)
15 or with princes who have gold,
    who fill their houses with silver.
¹⁶ Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child,
    like an infant that never sees the light?^(I)
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
    and there the weary are at rest.^(J)
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;
    they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
¹⁹ The small and the great are there,
    and the slaves are free from their masters.

²⁰ “Why is light given to one in misery
    and life to the bitter in soul,^(K)
21 who long for death, but it does not come,
    and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;^(L)
22 who rejoice exceedingly
    and are glad when they find the grave?
²³ Why is light given to one who cannot see the way,
    whom God has fenced in?^(M)
24 For my sighing comes like^[c] my bread,
    and my groanings are poured out like water.^(N)
25 Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me,
    and what I dread befalls me.
²⁶ I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
    I have no rest, but trouble comes.”