Then his wife said to him, “When will you give up persisting in your integrity? Curse God and die!”

He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. If we accept good things from God, should we not be willing to accept sorrows as well?” In all this, Job did not utter a single sinful word.

class="inline-h3">The Three Friends. When three of Job’s friends heard of all the misfortunes that he had endured, each of them set out from his own home—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. After they gathered together, they went forth to console and comfort him.

However, when they first saw Job from a distance, they could hardly recognize him, and they wept aloud, tore their cloaks, and threw dust into the air over their heads.

Then they sat there with him upon the ground for seven days and seven nights. None of them spoke a word to him, for they could clearly see how greatly he was suffering.

First Cycle of Speeches

Job Curses the Day He Was Born

class="chapter">Chapter 3

class="inline-h3">Perish the Day on Which I Was Born. After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

“Perish the day on which I was born and the night it was said, ‘A boy is born.’

May gloom and heavy darkness claim it; let clouds spread over it and blackness eclipse its light.

May thick darkness overpower it; let it not be numbered among the days of the year or reckoned in the cycle of the months.

“May that night be barren; let no cry of joy be heard during it.

Let those curse it who curse the sea and are prepared to rouse Leviathan.

May the stars of its twilight be darkened; let it wait in vain for daylight and never behold the first rays of dawn,

because it refused to shut the doors of the womb of my mother who bore me and shield my eyes from sorrow.

Why Go On Living?

“Why did I not die at birth, perishing as I came forth from the womb?

Why were there knees to receive me or breasts for me to feed on?

“For now I would be lying in tranquility, asleep and resting peacefully

with kings and counselors of the earth who built palaces for themselves that now lie in ruins,

Or why was I not laid in a grave like a stillborn child, like an infant that had never seen the light?

There the captives enjoy the solace of peace without having to cringe at the voice of their masters.

The small and the great are there as equals, and servants are free from their masters.

What Good Is Life?

“Why is light given to those in misery and life to those whose hearts are bitter,

who long for death that never comes and seek for it more than for hidden treasure,

who would rejoice to see the grave and exult on reaching the tomb,

who are unable to find their way and whom God has hemmed in on every side?

Everything that I fear has afflicted me, and whatever I dread befalls me.