Job

 3 “Let the day perish on which I came to be born,+

Also the night that someone said, ‘An able-bodied man* has been conceived!’

 4 As for that day, let it become darkness.

Let not God* look for it from above,

Nor let daylight beam upon it.

 5 Let darkness and deep shadow* reclaim it.

Let a rain cloud reside over it.

Let the things that darken a day terrorize it.+

 6 That night—let gloom take it;+

Let it not feel glad among the days of a year;

Among the number of the lunar months let it not enter.

 7 Look! That night—let it become sterile;

Let no joyful cry come in it.+

 8 Let cursers* of the day execrate it,

Those ready to awaken Le·viʹa·than.*+

 9 Let the stars of its twilight grow dark;

Let it wait for the light and there be none;

And let it not see the beams of dawn.

10 For it did not close the doors of my [mother’s] belly,+

And so conceal trouble from my eyes.

11 Why from the womb did I not proceed to die?+

[Why did I not] come forth from the belly itself and then expire?

12 Why was it that knees confronted me,

And why breasts+ that I should take suck?

13 For by now I should have lain down that I might be undisturbed;+

I should have slept then; I should be at rest+

14 With kings and counselors of the earth,+

Those building desolate places* for themselves,+

15 Or with princes who have gold,

Those who fill their houses with silver;

16 Or, like a hidden miscarriage,+ I should not come to be,

Like children that have seen no light.+

17 There the wicked themselves have ceased from agitation,+

And there those weary in power are at rest.+

18 Together prisoners themselves are at ease;

They actually do not hear the voice of one driving them to work.+

19 Small and great are there the same,+

And the slave is set free from his master.*

20 Why does he give light to one having trouble,

And life to those bitter of soul?+

21 Why are there those waiting for death, and it is not,+

Although they keep digging for it more than for hidden treasures?

22 Those who are rejoicing to gleefulness,*

They exult because they find a burial place.

23 [Why does he give light] to able-bodied man,* whose way has been concealed,+

And whom God* hedges in?+

24 For before my food my sighing comes,+

And like waters my roaring cries pour forth;+

25 Because a dreadful thing I have dreaded, and it comes upon me;

And what I have been scared of comes to me.+

26 I have not been carefree, nor have I been undisturbed,

Nor been at rest, and yet agitation comes.”