After this Job opened his mouth{HR}and cursed his day;
And Job answered and said,
Perish the day wherein I was born,{HR}And the night that said, A man is conceived.
That day! be it darkness;{HR}Let not God from above ask after it;{HR}And let not light shine upon it;
Let darkness and death-shade reclaim it;{HR}Let clouds tabernacle on it;{HR}Let darkenings of the day affright it.
That night! thick darkness seize on it;{HR}Let it not be joined to the days of the year;{HR}Let it not come into the number of the months.
Lo, that night! let it be barren;{HR}Let no shout of joy come into it;
Let cursers of days curse it,{HR}Who are prepared to rouse leviathan.
The stars of its twilight be dark;{HR}Let it look for light but [have] none,{HR}And let it not gaze on the eyelids of the dawn;
Because it shut not the doors of my [mother’s] belly,{HR}And hid sorrow from mine eyes.
Why did I not die from the womb—{HR}Come forth from the belly, and expire?
Why did the knees anticipate me,{HR}And why the breasts that I should suck?
For now I had lain, and been quiet,{HR}I had slept, and then had there been rest for me,
With kings and counselors of the earth,{HR}Who built ruins for themselves;
Or with princes that had gold,{HR}Who filled their houses with silver;
Or, as a hidden abortion, I should not be,{HR}As infants [that] never saw light:
There the wicked cease from raging,{HR}And there the weary are at rest;
Together rest the prisoners;{HR}They hear not the taskmaster’s voice;
Small and great are there the same;{HR}And free the slave from his master.
Wherefore giveth he light to the wretched one,{HR}And life to the bitter [in] soul;
Who long for death, and it [is] not,{HR}And dig for it more than for hid treasure;
Who rejoice to dancing,{HR}Exult when they find the grave?
To a man whose way is hid,{HR}And whom God hath hedged in?
For instead of my bread cometh my sighing,{HR}And like waters are my groans poured forth.
For greatly I feared, and forthwith it overtook me,{HR}And what I dreaded hath come to me.
I was not at ease, I had no quiet,{HR}And no rest, and trouble came.