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Job 3

Job Deplores His Birth

¹After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. ²And Job spoke, and said:

³“Maythe day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.’

⁴May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, Nor the light shine upon it.

⁵May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it.

⁶As for that night, may darkness seize it; May it not rejoice among the days of the year, May it not come into the number of the months.

⁷Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it!

⁸May those curse it who curse the day, Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan.

⁹May the stars of its morning be dark; May it look for light, but have none, And not see the dawning of the day;

¹⁰Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.

¹¹“Whydid I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?

¹²Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?

¹³For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest

¹⁴With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built ruins for themselves,

¹⁵Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with silver;

¹⁶Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, Like infants who never saw light?

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling, And there the weary are at rest.

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

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

²⁰“Whyis light given to him who is in misery, And life to the bitter of soul,

²¹Who long for death, but it does not come, And search for it more than hidden treasures;

²²Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad when they can find the grave?

²³Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God has hedged in?

²⁴For my sighing comes before I eat, And my groanings pour out like water.

²⁵For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.

²⁶I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes.”

Job 3 (NKJV)

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Job

Chapter 3

3 of 42