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[1]AFTER this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day wherein he was born.
[2]Then Job spoke and said,
[3]Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, A male child is conceived.
[4]Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
[5]Let the darkness and the shadow of death cover it; let a cloud overshadow it; let those whose days are bitter be terrified by it.
[6]As for that night, let thick darkness cover it; let that day not be reckoned in the number of the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
[7]Lo, let that night be desolate, let no voice of praise come therein.
[8]Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to stir up Leviathan.
[9]Let the stars of twilight thereof be dark; let the people wait for light, but receive none; neither let them see the dawning of the day;
[10]Because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes
[11]Why did I not die from the womb? Why did I come forth at birth?
[12]Why was I reared at my mother's knee? Why did I suck the breasts?
[13]For now I should have been laid in the grave and been quiet, I should have slept; then I should have been at rest,
[14]With kings and governors of the earth who built desolate places for themselves;
[15]Or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;
[16]Or like a hidden untimely birth, as if I had not been; like infants that never saw the light.
[17]There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary are at rest.
[18]There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
[19]The small and the great are there; and the servant is free from his master
[20]Why is light given to him who is in trouble, and life to the bitter in soul,
[21]Who long for death, but it comes not, and seek it as one seeks a hidden treasure;
[22]Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave?
[23]Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom God has hedged in?
[24]For my sighing comes before I eat, and my moanings are poured out like water.
[25]For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of has befallen me.
[26]I am not at ease, neither am I calm, nor am I at rest; and yet misfortune came
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