Job 3

2saying:

4Let that night be darkness: let not the Lord from above regard it, nor splendour come upon it:

5but let darkness and the shadow of death cover it: upon it let there come a thick darkness. May the day be execrated!

6And as for that night, may a pitchy darkness sweep it away! May that never come into the days of the year; nor be numbered among the days of months.

7But as for that night, may it be sorrow, and may there never come upon it gladness or mirth!

8But let Him curse it who curseth the day—Him Who is to attack the great sea-monster.

9May the stars of that night be obscured in darkness: may it long for light but never reach it; nor see the rising of the morning star:

10because it shut not up the door of my mother’s womb: for that would have removed sorrow from mine eyes:

11for why did I not end my days in the womb?

13I might now have lain still and been quiet; I might have gone to sleep and been at rest;

14with despots of the earth who gloried in their swords:

15or with chiefs who abounded in gold—who filled their houses with silver;

16or like an untimely birth sent forth from its mother’s womb: or like infants which never saw the light.

17There the wicked have ceased to be a terror: there the weary have got rest for their body:

18and they of old who are assembled there together; have never heard the exactor’s voice.

19Small and great are there on a level—the servant, with his dreaded lord.

20For why is light given to them in misery; or life to souls distressed with sorrow,

21who long for death but find it not; though they dig for it as for treasures;

22and would rejoice exceedingly if they should chance to find it.

24For my groaning cometh before my meat; and I pour forth tears, begirt with sorrow.

25For the terror, which I dreaded, is come upon me; and that of which I was afraid hath befallen me.

26Did I not cultivate peace? was I not quiet? was I not at rest? Yet wrath is come upon me.