Job 3 — NETB

3Verse 1After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born.^{Verse 2}Job spoke up and said:^{Verse 3}“Let the day on which I was born perish,
and the night that said,
‘A man has been conceived!’
^{Verse 4}That day – let it be darkness;
let not God on high regard it,
nor let light shine on it!
^{Verse 5}Let darkness and the deepest
shadow claim it;
let a cloud settle on it;
let whatever blackens the day terrify it!
^{Verse 6}That night – let darkness seize it;
let it not be included among the days of the year;
let it not enter among the number of the months!
^{Verse 7}Indeed, let that night be barren;
let no shout of joy penetrate it!
^{Verse 8}Let those who curse the day curse it –
those who are prepared to rouse Leviathan.
^{Verse 9}Let its morning stars be darkened;
let it wait for daylight but find none,
nor let it see the first rays of dawn,
^{Verse 10}because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb on me,
nor did it hide trouble from my eyes!

Job Wishes He Had Died at Birth

^{Verse 11}“Why did I not die at birth,
and why did I not expire
as I came out of the womb?
^{Verse 12}Why did the knees welcome me,
and why were there two breasts
that I might nurse at them?
^{Verse 13}For now I would be lying down
and would be quiet,
I would be asleep and then at peace
^{Verse 14}with kings and counselors of the earth
who built for themselves places now desolate,
^{Verse 15}or with princes who possessed gold,
who filled their palaces with silver.
^{Verse 16}Or why was I not buried
like a stillborn infant,
like infants who have never seen the light?
^{Verse 17}There the wicked cease from turmoil,
and there the weary are at rest.
^{Verse 18}There the prisoners relax together;
they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
^{Verse 19}Small and great are there,
and the slave is free from his master.

Longing for Death

^{Verse 20}“Why does God give light to one who is in misery,
and life to those whose soul is bitter,
^{Verse 21}to those who wait for death that does not come,
and search for it
more than for hidden treasures,
^{Verse 22}who rejoice even to jubilation,
and are exultant when they find the grave?
^{Verse 23}Why is light given to a man
whose way is hidden,
and whom God has hedged in?
^{Verse 24}For my sighing comes in place of my food,
and my groanings flow forth like water.
^{Verse 25}For the very thing I dreaded has happened to me,
and what I feared has come upon me.
^{Verse 26}I have no ease, I have no quietness;
I cannot rest; turmoil has come upon me.”