Job 3
American Standard Version
3 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
2 And Job answered and said:
3 Let the day perish wherein I was born,
And the night which said, There is a man-child conceived.
4 Let that day be darkness;
Let not God from above seek for it,
Neither let the light shine upon it.
5 Let darkness and [a]the shadow of death claim it for their own;
Let a cloud dwell upon it;
Let all that maketh black the day terrify it.
6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it:
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
Let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Lo, let that night be [b]barren;
Let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Let them curse it that curse the day,
Who are [c]ready to rouse up leviathan.
9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark:
Let it look for light, but have none;
Neither let it behold the eyelids of the morning:
10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb,
Nor hid trouble from mine eyes.
11 Why died I not from the womb?
Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me?
12 Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should suck?
13 For now should I have lain down and been quiet;
I should have slept; then had I been at rest,
14 With kings and counsellors of the earth,
Who [d]built up waste places for themselves;
15 Or with princes that had gold,
Who filled their houses with silver:
16 Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been,
As infants that never saw light.
17 There the wicked cease from [e]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 servant is free from his master.
20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery,
And life unto the bitter in soul;
21 Who [f]long for death, but it cometh not,
And dig for it more than for hid treasures;
22 Who rejoice [g]exceedingly,
And are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,
And whom God hath hedged in?
24 For my sighing cometh [h]before I eat,
And my [i]groanings are poured out like water.
25 For [j]the thing which I fear cometh upon me,
And that which I am afraid of cometh unto me.
26 I [k]am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest;
But trouble cometh.
Footnotes
- Job 3:5 Or, deep darkness (and so elsewhere)
- Job 3:7 Or, solitary
- Job 3:8 Or, skilful
- Job 3:14 Or, built solitary piles
- Job 3:17 Or, raging
- Job 3:21 Hebrew wait.
- Job 3:22 Or, unto exultation
- Job 3:24 Or, like my food
- Job 3:24 Hebrew roarings.
- Job 3:25 Or, the thing which I feared is come etc.
- Job 3:26 Or, was not at ease . . . yet trouble came
Job 3
Evangelical Heritage Version
The Arguments Between Job and His Friends
Round One: Job’s First Speech
3 Finally, Job opened his lips and cursed the day of his birth. 2 Job spoke up and said:
3 May the day of my birth perish,
and the night when it was said, “A child has been conceived!”
4 As for that day, let it be darkness!
May God above have no concern for it.
May light not shine on it.
5 May darkness and the shadow of death[a] reclaim it.
May a dark cloud settle over it.
May whatever blackens the day terrify it.
6 As for that night, may deep darkness take it away!
May it not be included[b] among the days of the year
or show up in the list of months.
7 Oh let that night be barren!
May no joyful shout be heard in it.
8 May those who curse days cast a spell on it,
those who are able to awaken Leviathan.[c]
9 May its twilight stars be darkened.
May it wait hopefully for light but receive none.
May it never see the eyelids of dawn,
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
and it did not hide trouble from my eyes.
11 Why did I not die at birth
or pass away as I came from the womb?
12 Why did my mother’s knees receive me?
Why were her breasts there to nurse me?
13 For then I would be lying down peacefully.
I would be sleeping and resting quietly
14 with the kings and counselors of the earth,
with those who rebuilt ruined cities for themselves,[d]
15 with high officials who accumulated gold,
with those who filled their houses with silver.
16 Why was I not hidden like a stillborn child,
like the infants who never see the light of day?
17 There the wicked cease from turmoil.
There the weary are at rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together.
They no longer hear the voice of the slave driver.
19 There the small and great are alike,
and the slave is free from his master.
20 Why is light given to those weighed down with grief?
Why is life given to those whose spirit is bitter,
21 to those who yearn for death but it does not come,
though they dig for it more than for buried treasure,
22 to those who will be thrilled with happiness,
those who will celebrate when they reach the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose path is hidden,
to one whom God has hedged in?
24 Now my sighing takes the place of my daily bread.
My groans gush forth like water,
25 because what I feared has overwhelmed me,
and that which I dreaded has come upon me.
26 I have no ease, no quiet, no rest.
Instead, turmoil has come.
Footnotes
- Job 3:5 The scribes of the Hebrew text consistently spell this word as a word that means the shadow of death. Many recent translations alter the spelling to a very similar word that means deep darkness. The EHV in many cases retains the traditional reading of the Hebrew scribes.
- Job 3:6 The translation follows the ancient versions. The Hebrew reads may it not rejoice.
- Job 3:8 Leviathan is a monster that represents chaos. See the note at 41:1 for more information.
- Job 3:14 Or those who built things now lying in ruins
Public Domain (Why are modern Bible translations copyrighted?)
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.