Job's Complaint to God
1 Finally Job broke the silence and cursed the day on which he had been born.
Job
2-3 O God, put a curse on the day I was born;
put a curse on the night when I was conceived!
4 Turn that day into darkness, God.
Never again remember that day;
never again let light shine on it.
5 Make it a day of gloom and thick darkness;
cover it with clouds, and blot out the sun.
6 Blot that night out of the year,
and never let it be counted again;
7 make it a barren, joyless night.
8 Tell the sorcerers to curse that day,
those who know how to control Leviathan.
9 Keep the morning star from shining;
give that night no hope of dawn.
10 Curse that night for letting me be born,
for exposing me to trouble and grief.
11 I wish I had died in my mother's womb
or died the moment I was born.
12 Why did my mother hold me on her knees?
Why did she feed me at her breast?
13 If I had died then, I would be at rest now,
14 sleeping like the kings and rulers
who rebuilt ancient palaces.
15 Then I would be sleeping like princes
who filled their houses with gold and silver,
16 or sleeping like a stillborn child.
17 In the grave wicked people stop their evil,
and tired workers find rest at last.
18 Even prisoners enjoy peace,
free from shouts and harsh commands.
19 Everyone is there, the famous and the unknown,
and slaves at last are free.
20 Why let people go on living in misery?
Why give light to those in grief
21 They wait for death, but it never comes;
they prefer a grave to any treasure.
22 They are not happy till they are dead and buried;
23 God keeps their future hidden
and hems them in on every side.
24 Instead of eating, I mourn,
and I can never stop groaning.
25 Everything I fear and dread comes true.
26 I have no peace, no rest,
and my troubles never end.
1 Afterward Iob opened his mouth, and cursed his day. 2 And Iob cryed out, and sayd, 3 Let the day perish, wherein I was borne, and the night when it was sayde, There is a man childe conceiued. 4 Let that day bee darkenesse, let not God regarde it from aboue, neyther let the light shine vpon it, 5 But let darkenesse, and the shadowe of death staine it: let the cloude remayne vpon it, and let them make it fearefull as a bitter day. 6 Let darkenesse possesse that night, let it not be ioyned vnto the dayes of the yeere, nor let it come into the count of the moneths. 7 Yea, desolate be that night, and let no ioy be in it. 8 Let them that curse the day, (being readie to renue their mourning) curse it. 9 Let the starres of that twilight be dimme through darkenesse of it: let it looke for light, but haue none: neither let it see the dawning of the day, 10 Because it shut not vp the dores of my mothers wombe: nor hid sorowe from mine eyes. 11 Why died I not in the birth? or why dyed I not, when I came out of the wombe? 12 Why did the knees preuent me? and why did I sucke the breasts? 13 For so shoulde I now haue lyen and bene quiet, I should haue slept then, and bene at rest, 14 With the Kings and counselers of the earth, which haue buylded themselues desolate places: 15 Or with the princes that had golde, and haue filled their houses with siluer. 16 Or why was I not hid, as an vntimely birth, either as infants, which haue not seene the light? 17 The wicked haue there ceased from their tyrannie, and there they that laboured valiantly, are at rest. 18 The prisoners rest together, and heare not the voyce of the oppressour. 19 There are small and great, and the seruant is free from his master. 20 Wherefore is the light giuen to him that is in miserie? and life vnto them that haue heauie hearts? 21 Which long for death, and if it come not, they would euen search it more then treasures: 22 Which ioy for gladnes, and reioyce, when they can finde the graue. 23 Why is the light giuen to the man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in? 24 For my sighing commeth before I eate, and my roarings are powred out like the water. 25 For the thing I feared, is come vpon me, and the thing that I was afraid of, is come vnto me. 26 I had no peace, neither had I quietnesse, neither had I rest, yet trouble is come.