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3:1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born. 3:2 Job spoke up and said:
3:3 “Let the day on which I was born perish, and the night that said, ‘A man has been conceived!’ 3:4 That day —let it be darkness; let not God on high regard it, nor let light shine on it! 3:5 Let darkness and the deepest shadow claim it; let a cloud settle on it; let whatever blackens the day terrify it. 3:6 That night—let darkness seize it; let it not be included among the days of the year; let it not enter among the number of the months! 3:7 Indeed, let that night be barren; let no shout of joy penetrate it! 3:8 Let those who curse the day curse it — those who are prepared to rouse Leviathan. 3:9 Let its morning stars be darkened; let it wait for daylight but find none, nor let it see the first rays of dawn, 3:10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb on me, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
3:11 “Why did I not die at birth, and why did I not expire as I came out of the womb? 3:12 Why did the knees welcome me, and why were there two breasts that I might nurse at them? 3:13 For now I would be lying down and would be quiet, I would be asleep and then at peace 3:14 with kings and counselors of the earth who built for themselves places now desolate, 3:15 or with princes who possessed gold, who filled their palaces with silver. 3:16 Or why was I not buried like a stillborn infant, like infants who have never seen the light? 3:17 There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest. 3:18 There the prisoners relax together; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor. 3:19 Small and great are there, and the slave is free from his master.
3:20 “Why does God give light to one who is in misery, and life to those whose soul is bitter, 3:21 to those who wait for death that does not come, and search for it more than for hidden treasures, 3:22 who rejoice even to jubilation, and are exultant when they find the grave? 3:23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in? 3:24 For my sighing comes in place of my food, and my groanings flow forth like water. 3:25 For the very thing I dreaded has happened to me, and what I feared has come upon me. 3:26 I have no ease; I have no quietness; I cannot rest; turmoil has come upon me.”
NET Bible Second Edition. Copyright 2017 Biblical Studies Press
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