3 ⁽²⁾ Iyov said,

^2 (3) “Perish the day I was born
and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’
^3 (4) May that day be darkness,
may God on high not seek it,
may no light shine on it,
^4 (5) may gloom dark as death defile it,
may clouds settle on it,
may it be terrified by its own blackness.

^5 (6) “As for that night, may thick darkness seize it,
may it not be joined to the days of the year,
may it not be numbered among the months;
^6 (7) may that night be desolate,
may no cry of joy be heard in it;
^7 (8) may those who curse days curse it,
those who[se curses] could rouse Livyatan;
^8 (9) may the stars of its twilight be dark,
may it look for light but get none,
may it never see the shimmer of dawn —
^9 (10) because it didn’t shut the doors of the womb I was in
and shield my eyes from trouble.

^10 (11) “If I had been stillborn,
if I had died at birth,
^11 (12) had there been no knees to receive me
or breasts for me to suck.
^12 (13) Then I would be lying still and in peace,
I would have slept and been at rest,
^13 (14) along with kings and their earthly advisers,
who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
^14 (15) or with princes who had [plenty of] gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
^15 (16) Or I could have been like a hidden, miscarried
child that never saw light.

^16 (17) “There the wicked cease their raging,
there the weary are at rest,
^17 (18) prisoners live at peace together
without hearing a taskmaster’s yells.
^18 (19) Great and small alike are there,
and the slave is free of his master.

^19 (20) “So why must light be given to the miserable
and life to the bitter in spirit?
^20 (21) They long for death, but it never comes;
they search for it more than for buried treasure;
^21 (22) when at last they find the grave,
they are so happy they shout for joy.
^22 (23) [Why give light] to a man who wanders blindly,
whom God shuts in on every side?

^23 (24) “My sighing serves in place of my food,
and my groans pour out in a torrent;
^24 (25) for the thing I feared has overwhelmed me,
what I dreaded has happened to me.
^25 (26) I have no peace, no quiet, no rest;
and anguish keeps coming.”