LEB JOB Chapter 3

Job Regrets His Birth

3 ⌊Afterward⌋[fn] Job opened his mouth and cursed[fn] his day. 2 Thus[fn] Job ⌊spoke up⌋[fn] and said,

• 3 “Let the day perish on which I was born,
• and the night that said, ‘A man-child is conceived.’
• 4 Let that day become[fn] darkness;
• may God not seek it from above,
• nor may daylight shine on it.
• 5 Let darkness and deep shadow claim it;
• let clouds[fn] settle on it;
• let them[fn] terrify it with the blackness[fn] of day.
• 6 Let darkness seize that night;[fn]
• let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
• let it not enter among the number of the months.
• 7 Look, let that night become[fn] barren;
• let a joyful song not enter it.
• 8 Let those who curse the day curse it,
• those who are skilled at rousing Leviathan.
• 9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
• let it hope for light but[fn] there be none,
• and let it not see the eyelids of dawn
• 10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
• nor[fn] did it hide trouble from my eyes.

Job Wishes He Had Died

• 11 “Why did I not die at[fn] birth?
• Why did I not come forth from the womb and expire?
• 12 Why did the knees receive me
• and the breasts, that I could suck?
• 13 For now I would lie down, and I would be at peace;
• I would be asleep; then I would be at rest[fn]
• 14 with kings and counselors of the earth,
• who rebuild[fn] ruins for themselves,
• 15 or with high officials who have gold ,[fn]
• who fill up their houses with silver.
• 16 Or why was I not hidden like a miscarriage,
• like infants who did not see the light?
• 17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
• and there the weary[fn] are at rest;
• 18 the prisoners are at ease together;
• they do not hear the oppressor’s voice.
• 19 The small and the great are there,
• and the slave is free from his masters.[fn]

Job Wishes He Might Die

• 20 “Why does he[fn] give light to one in misery
• and life to those bitter of soul,
• 21 who wait for death, but[fn] it does not come ,[fn]
• and search[fn] for it more than for treasures,
• 22 who rejoice exceedingly ,[fn]
• and they are glad when they find the grave?
• 23 Why does he to a man whose way is hidden,
• and God has fenced him in all around?
• 24 For[fn] my sighing comes before[fn] my bread,[fn]
• and my groanings gush forth like water
• 25 because the dread that I feel[fn] has come upon me,
• and what I feared befalls me.
• 26 I am not at ease, and I am not at peace,
• and I do not have rest, thus[fn] turmoil has come.”