¹After this Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.

²And Job answered and said:

³Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, "A man has been conceived."

⁴That day—let it be darkness; let God not seek it out from above, and let no daylight shine on it.

⁵Let darkness and deep shadow redeem it; let a cloud settle over it; let the gloom of the day terrify it.

⁶That night—let gloom take it; let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

⁷Look, that night—let it be barren; let no cry of joy come into it.

⁸Let them curse it—those who curse the day, those ready to rouse Leviathan.

⁹Let the stars of its twilight grow dark; let it wait for light, and let there be none; and let it not see the eyelids of the dawn.

¹⁰For it did not close up the doors of my womb, or hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹Why did I not die from the womb? From the belly I came out and breathed my last.

¹²Why did knees meet me, and why breasts, that I should suckle?

¹³For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept, and then there would be rest for me.

¹⁴With kings and counselors of the land, who build ruins for themselves;

¹⁵Or with officials who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

¹⁶Or like a hidden miscarriage I would not be, like infants who never saw light.

¹⁷There the wicked cease from agitation, and there the weary in strength rest.

¹⁸Together the prisoners are at ease; they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.

¹⁹The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his masters.

²⁰Why is light given to the sufferer, and life to those whose being is bitter,

²¹who long for death, but it is not, and who dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

²²who are joyful to the point of rejoicing, and exult when they find the grave,

²³To a man whose way is hidden, and God has screened about him?

²⁴For before my food my groaning comes, and my roarings pour out like water.

²⁵For the dread I dreaded has come upon me, and what I feared has come to me.

²⁶I have not been at ease, and I have not been quiet, and I have not rested, and agitation has come