1. After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.
2. Then Job answered and said:
3. “May the day I was born perish, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived!’
4. That day—may it be darkness; may God above not regard it; may no light shine on it.
5. May darkness and deep gloom reclaim it; may a cloud settle over it; may whatever blackens the day terrify it.
6. That night—may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year, nor be entered among the number of months.
7. Indeed, may that night be barren; may no joyful shout enter it.
8. May those who curse, curse the day— those ready to awaken Leviathan.
9. May its morning stars be darkened; may it hope for light but have none— may it never see the eyelids of dawn.
10. For it did not shut the doors of the womb on me, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
11. Why did I not die at birth and expire as I exited the womb?
12. Why did the knees welcome me, and breasts that I might nurse?
13. For now I would be lying down and quiet; I would be asleep and at rest
14. with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves places now desolate,
15. with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
16. Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn, like infants who never saw light?
17. There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest.
18. Prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19. Small and great are there; and slave is free from his master.
20. Why is light given to one who suffers and life to the bitter of soul,
21. to those who long for death, but it does not come, who dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22. who are filled with gladness and rejoice when finding the grave?
23. Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in?
24. For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groans pour out like water.
25. For the thing I dreaded has come upon me, and what I feared has happened to me.
26. I have no ease, no quietness; I have no rest, but turmoil came.”