Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
v1
Afterward ^[Literally “After thus”] Job opened his mouth and cursed ^[A different term than that employed in 1:5, 11; 2:5, 9] his day.
v2
Thus ^[Hebrew “And”] Job spoke up ^[Literally “answered”] and said,
v3
“Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man-child is conceived.‘
v4
Let that day become ^[Or “be”] darkness; may God not seek it from above, nor may daylight shine on it.
v5
Let darkness and deep shadow claim it; let clouds ^[Literally “cloud”] settle on it; let them ^[Masculine plural referring to all three entities mentioned in this verse] terrify it with the blackness ^[Literally “blacknesses”] of day.
v6
Let darkness seize that night; ^[Literally “That night, let darkness seize it”] let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not enter among the number of the months.
v7
Look, let that night become ^[Or “be”] barren; let a joyful song not enter it.
v8
Let those who curse the day curse it, those who are skilled at rousing Leviathan.
v9
Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light but ^[Hebrew “and”] there be none, and let it not see the eyelids of dawn
v10
because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb, nor ^[Hebrew “And”] did it hide trouble from my eyes.
v11
“Why did I not die at ^[Literally “from”] birth? Why did I not come forth from the womb and expire?
v12
Why did the knees receive me and the breasts, that I could suck?
v13
For now I would lie down, and I would be at peace; I would be asleep; then I would be at rest ^[Literally “it would be at rest for me”]
v14
with kings and counselors of the earth, who rebuild ^[Literally “build”] ruins for themselves,
v15
or with high officials who have gold, ^[Literally “gold is for them”] who fill up their houses with silver.
v16
Or why was I not hidden like a miscarriage, like infants who did not see the light?
v17
There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary ^[Literally “weary of strength”] are at rest;
v18
the prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the oppressor’s voice.
v19
The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his masters. ^[Or “master”]
v20
“Why does he ^[Most likely God] give light to one in misery and life to those bitter of soul,
v21
who wait for death, but ^[Hebrew “and”] it does not come, ^[Literally “it is not”] and search ^[Or “dig”] for it more than for treasures,
v22
who rejoice exceedingly, ^[Literally “unto rejoicing”] and they are glad when they find the grave?
v23
Why does he ^[Most likely God] give light to a man whose way is hidden, and God has fenced him in all around?
v24
For ^[Or perhaps emphatic, “Indeed”] my sighing comes before ^[Or “in place of” (NET); literally “to the faces of”] my bread, ^[Or “food”] and my groanings gush forth like water
v25
because the dread that I feel ^[Literally “dread”] has come upon me, and what I feared befalls me.
v26
I am not at ease, and I am not at peace, and I do not have rest, thus ^[Hebrew “and”] turmoil has come.”