THE BOOK OF
JOB

Job 3 ©

Job, being extremely oppressed by the greatness of his plagues and the pains he endured by them, curses the day of his birth, v. 1. etc. Wishes he had died immediately after he was born, 11. And shows his reasons why, 13. He bemoans the life of wretched and miserable men, 20. And applies the complaint to himself, 24.

1

AFTER this opened Job his mouth, and curseda1his day.

2

And Job 2spake, and said,

3

Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child 3conceived.

4

Let that day 4be darkness; let 5not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

5

Let darkness and 6the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the 7blackness of the day terrify it.

6

As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it 8not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the 9months.

7

Lo, let that night be 10solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.

8

Let them curse it that 11curse the day, who are ready to raise up their 12mourning.

9

Let the stars 13of the twilight thereof be dark; 14let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see 15the dawning of the day:

10

Because 16it shut not up the doors of my mother’s 17womb, nor 18hid sorrow from mine eyes.

11

Whyb19died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

12

Why did the 20knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should 21suck?

13

For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

14

22With 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

23Or as an 24hidden untimely birth 25I had not been; as 26infants which never saw light.

17

27There the wicked cease from 28troubling; and there the 29weary be at rest.

18

There the 30prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the 31oppressor.

19

32The small and great are there; and the servant is free from 33his master.

20

Wherefore 34is 35light given to him that is in misery, and life unto 36the bitter in soul;

21

Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;

22

Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

23

37Why is light given to a man whose way is 38hid, andc39whom God hath hedged in?

24

For my sighing cometh 40before I eat, and my roarings 41are poured out like the waters.

25

For the 42thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.

26

I was not 43in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.