Job 3

Tree of Life Version

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.”