Noyes - Job - 3

3:1  At length Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.

3:2  And Job spake and said:

3:3  Perish the day in which I was born, and the night which said, "A man-child is conceived!"

3:4  Let that day be darkness; Let not God seek it from above; Yea, let not the light shine upon it!

3:5  Let darkness and the shadow of death redeem it; Let a cloud dwell upon it; Let whatever darkeneth the day terrify it!

3:6  As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not come into the number of the months!

3:7  O let that night be unfruitful! Let there be in it no voice of joy;

3:8  Let them that curse the day curse it, Who are skilful to stir up the leviathan!

3:9  Let the stars of its twilight be darkened; Let it long for light, and have none; Neither let it see the eyelashes of the morning!

3:10  Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, And hid not trouble from mine eyes.

3:11  Why died I not at my birth? Why did I not expire when I came forth from the womb?

3:12  Why did the knees receive me, And why the breasts, that I might suck?

3:13  For now should I lie down and be quiet; I should sleep; then should I be at rest,

3:14  With kings and counsellors of the earth, Who built up for themselves—ruins!

3:15  Or with princes that had gold, And filled their houses with silver;

3:16  Or, as a hidden untimely birth, I had perished; As infants which never saw the light.

3:17  There the wicked cease from troubling; There the weary are at rest.

3:18  There the prisoners rest together; They hear not the voice of the oppressor.

3:19  The small and the great are there, And the servant is free from his master.

3:20  Why giveth He light to him that is in misery, And life to the bitter in soul,

3:21  Who long for death, and it cometh not, And dig for it more than for hid treasures;

3:22  Who rejoice exceedingly, Yea, exult, when they can find a grave?

3:23  Why is light given to a man from whom the way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in?

3:24  For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my groans are poured out like water.

3:25  For that which I dread overtaketh me; That at which I shudder cometh upon me.

3:26  I have no peace, nor quiet, nor respite: Misery cometh upon me continually.