AB - Job - 3

3:1  After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth,

3:2  saying,

3:3  Let the day perish in which I was born, and that night in which they said, Behold a male child!

3:4  Let that night be darkness, and let not the Lord regard it from above, neither let light come upon it.

3:5  But let darkness and the shadow of death seize it; let blackness come upon it.

3:6  Let that day and night be cursed, let darkness carry them away; let it not come into the days of the year, neither let it be numbered with the days of the months.

3:7  But let that night be pain, and let not mirth come upon it, nor joy.

3:8  But let him that curses that day curse it, even he that is ready to attack the Great Whale.

3:9  Let the stars of that night be darkened; let it remain dark, and not come into light; and let it not see the morning star arise:

3:10  because it shut not up the gates of my mother's womb, for so it would have removed sorrow from my eyes.

3:11  For why did I not die in the belly? And why did I not come forth from the womb and die immediately?

3:12  And why did the knees support me? And why did I suck the breasts?

3:13  Now I should have lain down and been quiet, I should have slept and been at rest,

3:14  with kings and counselors of the earth, who gloried in their swords;

3:15  or with rulers, whose gold was abundant, who filled their houses with silver:

3:16  or I should have been as an untimely birth proceeding from his mother's womb, or as infants who never saw light.

3:17  There the ungodly have burnt out the fury of rage; there the wearied in body rest.

3:18  And the men of old time have together ceased to hear the voice of the oppressor.

3:19  The small and great are there, and the servant that feared his lord.

3:20  For why is light given to those who are in bitterness, and life to those souls which are in grief?

3:21  Who desire death, and obtain it not, digging for it as for treasures;

3:22  and would be very joyful if they should gain it?

3:23  Death is rest to such a man, for God has hedged him in.

3:24  For my groaning comes before my food, and I weep, being beset with terror.

3:25  For the terror of which I meditated has come upon me, and that which I had feared has befallen me.

3:26  I was not at peace, nor quiet, nor had I rest; yet wrath came upon me.