Job 3:11-22

English Standard Version

¹¹ “Why ^(A)did I not die at birth,
    come out from the womb and expire?
¹² Why did ^(B)the knees receive me?
    Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
¹³ For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
    I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
¹⁴ with kings and counselors of the earth
    who ^(C)rebuilt ruins for themselves,
¹⁵ or with princes who had gold,
    who filled their houses with silver.
¹⁶ Or why was I not as a hidden ^(D)stillborn child,
    as infants who never see the light?
¹⁷ There the wicked cease from troubling,
    and there the weary are at ^(E)rest.
¹⁸ There the prisoners are at ease together;
    they hear not the voice of ^(F)the taskmaster.
¹⁹ The small and the great are there,
    and the slave is free from his master.

²⁰ “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
    and life to ^(G)the bitter in soul,
²¹ who ^(H)long for death, but it comes not,
    and dig for it more than for ^(I)hidden treasures,
²² who rejoice exceedingly
    and are glad when they find the grave?