Job 3
Complete Jewish Bible
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.”
Job 3
EasyEnglish Bible
Job complains to God[a]
3 Finally, Job decided to speak. He cursed the day when he was born.
2 This is what Job said:
3 ‘Forget the day of my birth.
Forget the night when a son was born to my parents.
4 That day should be completely dark,
with no light to shine on it!
God in heaven above should not even think about it.
5 That day should remain in a dark shadow.
Clouds should cover it so that everywhere is black.
6 Remove that night completely!
It should no longer be a date among the days of the year.
Remove that day from the months of the year.
7 Do not let women become pregnant on that night.
Nobody should be happy!
8 People who know how to curse days should curse that day.
They should wake up Leviathan, the monster from the sea, to attack it.
9 The stars of early morning should be dark on that day.
Do not let the sun shine at dawn,
so that there is no end to the dark night.
10 I curse that day because it allowed me to be born.
It brought me into a life of trouble.
11 It would have been better if I had died at birth.
I should have been born dead.
12 Instead, my mother held me on her knees.
I drank from her breasts.
13 If I had died at birth, I would now be resting in peace.
14 I would be resting with kings and rulers.
They lived in beautiful houses which are now heaps of stones.
15 I would be with princes who once were very rich.
Their palaces were full of gold and silver.
16 My parents should have buried me,
like a child that is born dead.
I would never have seen the light of day.
17 After death, wicked people can no longer cause any trouble.
People who have become tired can rest.
18 Even prisoners can enjoy a time of peace.
No guards are there to shout at them.
19 Great people and ordinary people are all there together.
Slaves have no master that they must obey.
20 I am suffering very much.
Why does God let me wake up each day?
I am very upset,
so why does God continue to let me live?
21 People like me only want to die. But death does not come.
They would rather die than find valuable gold.
22 When their life finally finishes, they are very happy.
They are happy to go into their graves.
23 So why do I continue to live?
God has stopped me moving forward in life.
I cannot see which way to go.
24 I am crying instead of eating.
My tears pour out like a river of water.
25 The things that frighten me most have happened to me.
26 Because of all the trouble that has happened to me,
I cannot rest. I have no peace in my mind.’
Footnotes
- 3:1 Job does not understand why these bad things have happened to him. He thinks that God is not fair. He has so much trouble and pain that he wants to die.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.