איוב ג

Afterward, Job began to speak and cursed the day of his birth.

Job spoke up and said:

Perish the day on which I was born,
And the night it was announced,
“A male has been conceived!”

May that day be darkness;
May God above have no concern for it;
May light not shine on it;

May darkness and deep gloom reclaim it;
May a pall lie over it;
May what blackens the day terrify it.

May obscurity carry off that night;
May it not be counted among the days of the year;
May it not appear in any of its months;

May that night be desolate;
May no sound of joy be heard in it;

May those who cast spells upon the day as equivalent of yam; compare the combination of sea with Leviathan in Ps. 74.13, 14 and with Dragon in Job 7.12; cf. also Isa. 27.1. damn it,
Those prepared to disable Leviathan;

May its twilight stars remain dark;
May it hope for light and have none;
May it not see the glimmerings of the dawn—

Because it did not block my mother’s womb,
And hide trouble from my eyes.

Why did I not die at birth,
Expire as I came forth from the womb?

Why were there knees to receive me,
Or breasts for me to suck?

For now would I be lying in repose, asleep and at rest,

With the world’s kings and counselors who rebuild ruins for themselves,

Or with nobles who possess gold and who fill their houses with silver.

Or why was I not like a buried stillbirth,
Like babies who never saw the light?

There the wicked cease from troubling;
There rest those whose strength is spent.

Prisoners are wholly at ease;
They do not hear the taskmaster’s voice.

Small and great alike are there,
And the slave is free of his master.

Why does [God] give light to the sufferer
And life to the bitter in spirit;

To those who wait for death but it does not come,
Who search for it more than for treasure,

Who rejoice to exultation,
And are glad to reach the grave;

To the man who has lost his way,
Whom God has hedged about?

My groaning serves as my bread;
My roaring pours forth as water.

For what I feared has overtaken me;
What I dreaded has come upon me.

I had no repose, no quiet, no rest,
And trouble came.