Job 3

1 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.2 And Job spake, and said,s3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.ss6 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.s7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.s9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:s10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.s18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.19 The small and 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 Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;s22 Which rejoice 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 before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.s25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.s26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

Job 3

Job Cries Out

1-2 What's the Point of Life?Then Job broke the silence. He spoke up and cursed his fate:3-10 "Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived! Let it be a black hole in space. May God above forget it ever happened. Erase it from the books! May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night. And the night of my conception—the devil take it! Rip the date off the calendar, delete it from the almanac. Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness— no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever! May those who are good at cursing curse that day. Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it. May its morning stars turn to black cinders, waiting for a daylight that never comes, never once seeing the first light of dawn. And why? Because it released me from my mother's womb into a life with so much trouble.
11-19 "Why didn't I die at birth, my first breath out of the womb my last? Why were there arms to rock me, and breasts for me to drink from? I could be resting in peace right now, asleep forever, feeling no pain, In the company of kings and statesmen in their royal ruins, Or with princes resplendent in their gold and silver tombs. Why wasn't I stillborn and buried with all the babies who never saw light, Where the wicked no longer trouble anyone and bone-weary people get a long-deserved rest? Prisoners sleep undisturbed, never again to wake up to the bark of the guards. The small and the great are equals in that place, and slaves are free from their masters.
20-23 "Why does God bother giving light to the miserable, why bother keeping bitter people alive, Those who want in the worst way to die, and can't, who can't imagine anything better than death, Who count the day of their death and burial the happiest day of their life? What's the point of life when it doesn't make sense, when God blocks all the roads to meaning?
24-26 "Instead of bread I get groans for my supper, then leave the table and vomit my anguish. The worst of my fears has come true, what I've dreaded most has happened. My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed. No rest for me, ever—death has invaded life."