³ “Let the day perish in which I was born
    and the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.’
⁴ As for that day, let it be darkness;
    let God above not regard it;
    and let not light shine upon it.
⁵ Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it;
    let a cloud settle on it;
    let the blackness of the day terrify it.
⁶ As for that night, let darkness capture it;
    let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
    let it not come into the number of the months.
⁷ Yes, as for that night, let it be barren!
    Let no joyful cry come into it!
⁸ Let them curse it who curse any day,
    those who are prepared to rouse Leviathan.
⁹ Let its morning stars be dark;
    let it look for light, but have none;
    let it not see the rays of dawn,
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?
    Why did I not expire when I came out of the womb?
¹² Why did her knees receive me?
    And why her breasts that I should nurse?
¹³ For now I would be lying down and would be at peace;
    I would have slept; then there would be rest for me,
¹⁴ with kings and counselors of the earth,
    who built ruins for themselves,
¹⁵ or with princes who had gold,
    who filled their houses with silver.
¹⁶ Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child,
    like infants who never saw light?
¹⁷ There the wicked will have stopped causing trouble,
    and there the exhausted will rest.
¹⁸ Captives will relax together;
    they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
¹⁹ The small and great, they are there,
    and the servant is free from his master.

²⁰ “Why is light given to the miserable,
    and life unto the bitter in soul,
²¹ who look for death, but it is not there;
    and they search for it more than for hidden treasures;
²² who rejoice exceedingly,
    and they are glad when they find the grave?
²³ And why is light given to a man
    whose way is hidden,
    whom God has hedged in?
²⁴ For my sighing comes before I eat,
    and my groaning pours forth like the waters.
²⁵ For the thing which I greatly feared has happened to me,
    and that which I dreaded has come to me.
²⁶ I am not at peace; I have no quiet,
    I cannot rest, and turmoil has come.”