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After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

And Job answered and said:
Let the day perish wherein I was born,
And the night which said, There is a man-child conceived.
Let that day be darkness;
Let not God from above seek for it,
Neither let the light shine upon it.
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.
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.
Lo, let that night be [b]barren;
Let no joyful voice come therein.
Let them curse it that curse the day,
Who are [c]ready to rouse up leviathan.
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

  1. Job 3:5 Or, deep darkness (and so elsewhere)
  2. Job 3:7 Or, solitary
  3. Job 3:8 Or, skilful
  4. Job 3:14 Or, built solitary piles
  5. Job 3:17 Or, raging
  6. Job 3:21 Hebrew wait.
  7. Job 3:22 Or, unto exultation
  8. Job 3:24 Or, like my food
  9. Job 3:24 Hebrew roarings.
  10. Job 3:25 Or, the thing which I feared is come etc.
  11. Job 3:26 Or, was not at ease . . . yet trouble came

(2) Iyov said,

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

(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;
(7) may that night be desolate,
may no cry of joy be heard in it;
(8) may those who curse days curse it,
those who[se curses] could rouse Livyatan;
(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 —
(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.”

约伯咒诅自己的生日

后来,约伯开口咒诅自己的生日。 约伯说:

“愿我生的那日泯灭,

人说怀男胎的那夜灭没。

愿那日变成黑暗,

愿 神不从上面眷顾,

愿光明不照耀在其上。

愿黑暗与死荫索讨那日,

愿密云停留在上面,

愿白天的昏黑惊吓它。

愿那夜被幽暗夺去,

不让它连在平日之中,列入月数之内。

愿那夜没有生育,

也没有欢乐的声音。

那些咒诅日子、善于惹动海怪的,

愿他们咒诅那夜。

愿那夜黎明的星星变成黑暗,

愿那夜等候发光却不亮,见不到清晨的曙光。

10 因为那夜没有把我母胎的门关闭,

也没有把苦难隐藏,使我看不见。

切愿夭折

11 我为甚么不一离母胎就死去?

我为甚么不一出母腹就断气?

12 为甚么有膝承接我?

为甚么有乳哺养我?

13 不然,我早已躺下安息,

14 与世上那些为自己建造陵墓的君王和谋士同睡,

15 或与那些拥有黄金,房屋装满银子的王侯同眠。

16 我为甚么不像暗中流产的胎,未见天日的婴孩,归于无有呢?

17 在那里,恶人止息搅扰,

筋疲力尽的得安息;

18 被囚的同享安宁;

听不见督工的声音;

19 老少尊卑都在那里,

奴仆脱离主人的辖制。

厌恶生存

20 为甚么有光明赐给劳碌的人,

有生命赐给苦命的人呢?

21 他们想死却死不了,找死胜于找宝藏;

22 他们找到坟墓就高兴,非常欢喜快乐。

23 为甚么有生命赐给前途茫茫,又被 神四面围困的人呢?

24 我以叹息代替食物,

我唉哼的声音如水涌出。

25 我所惧怕的临到我,

我所惊恐的向我而来。

26 我不得安逸,不得安静,

也不得安息,却有搅扰来到。”