³ “Let the day perish on which I was born,
    and the night that said,
    ‘A man is conceived.’
⁴ Let that day be darkness!
    May God above not seek it,
    nor light shine upon it.
⁵ Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
    Let clouds dwell upon it;
    let the blackness of the day terrify it.
⁶ That night—let thick darkness seize it!
    Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
    let it not come into the number of the months.
⁷ Behold, let that night be barren;
    let no joyful cry enter it.
⁸ Let those curse it who curse the day,
    who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
⁹ Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
    let it hope for light, but have none,
    nor see the eyelids of the morning,
¹⁰ because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb,
    nor hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹ “Why did I not die at birth,
    come out from the womb and expire?
¹² Why did 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 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 stillborn child,
    as infants who never see the light?
¹⁷ There the wicked cease from troubling,
    and there the weary are at rest.
¹⁸ There the prisoners are at ease together;
    they hear not the voice of 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 the bitter in soul,
²¹ who long for death, but it comes not,
    and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
²² who rejoice exceedingly
    and are glad when they find the grave?
²³ Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
    whom God has hedged in?
²⁴ For my sighing comes instead of^[a] my bread,
    and my groanings are poured out like water.
²⁵ For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
    and what I dread befalls me.
²⁶ I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
    I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

² “If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
    Yet who can keep from speaking?
³ Behold, you have instructed many,
    and you have strengthened the weak hands.
⁴ Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
    and you have made firm the feeble knees.
⁵ But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
    it touches you, and you are dismayed.
⁶ Is not your fear of God^[b] your confidence,
    and the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷ “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished?
    Or where were the upright cut off?
⁸ As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
    and sow trouble reap the same.
⁹ By the breath of God they perish,
    and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
¹⁰ The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
    the teeth of the young lions are broken.
¹¹ The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
    and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹² “Now a word was brought to me stealthily;
    my ear received the whisper of it.
¹³ Amid thoughts from visions of the night,
    when deep sleep falls on men,
¹⁴ dread came upon me, and trembling,
    which made all my bones shake.
¹⁵ A spirit glided past my face;
    the hair of my flesh stood up.
¹⁶ It stood still,
    but I could not discern its appearance.
A form was before my eyes;
    there was silence, then I heard a voice:
¹⁷ ‘Can mortal man be in the right before^[c] God?
    Can a man be pure before his Maker?
¹⁸ Even in his servants he puts no trust,
    and his angels he charges with error;
¹⁹ how much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
    whose foundation is in the dust,
    who are crushed like^[d] the moth.
²⁰ Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces;
    they perish forever without anyone regarding it.
²¹ Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them,
    do they not die, and that without wisdom?’