Job 3 ESV | WeDevote Bible

Job Laments His Birth

1After this Job 3:1 ch. 33:2; Ps. 78:2opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

2And Job said:

33:3 [ch. 10:18, 19]; See Jer. 20:14-18“Let the day perish on which I was born,

and the night that said,

‘A man is conceived.’

4Let that day be darkness!

May God above not seek it,

nor light shine upon it.

5Let gloom and 3:5 ch. 10:21, 22; 12:22; 24:17; 28:3; 34:22; 38:17; Ps. 23:4; Isa. 9:2; Matt. 4:16deep darkness claim it.

Let clouds dwell upon it;

let the blackness of the day terrify it.

6That night—let thick darkness seize it!

Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;

let it not come into the number of the months.

7Behold, let that night be barren;

let no joyful cry enter it.

8Let those curse it who curse the day,

who are ready to rouse up 3:8 ch. 41:1Leviathan.

9Let the stars of its dawn be dark;

let it hope for light, but have none,

nor see 3:9 ch. 41:18the eyelids of the morning,

10because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,

nor hide trouble from my eyes.

11“Why 3:11 ch. 10:18, 19did I not die at birth,

come out from the womb and expire?

12Why did 3:12 Gen. 30:3; 50:23; Isa. 66:12the knees receive me?

Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?

13For then I would have lain down and been quiet;

I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,

14with kings and counselors of the earth

who 3:14 [Isa. 58:12]rebuilt ruins for themselves,

15or with princes who had gold,

who filled their houses with silver.

16Or why was I not as a hidden 3:16 Ps. 58:8; Eccles. 6:3; [1 Cor. 15:8]stillborn child,

as infants who never see the light?

17There the wicked cease from troubling,

and there the weary are at 3:17 ch. 17:16rest.

18There the prisoners are at ease together;

they hear not the voice of 3:18 Ex. 3:7the taskmaster.

19The small and the great are there,

and the slave is free from his master.

20“Why is light given to him who is in misery,

and life to 3:20 Prov. 31:6the bitter in soul,

21who 3:21 Rev. 9:6long for death, but it comes not,

and dig for it more than for 3:21 Prov. 2:4hidden treasures,

22who rejoice exceedingly

and are glad when they find the grave?

23Why is light given to a man whose 3:23 Isa. 40:27way is hidden,

whom God has 3:23 [ch. 1:10]; See ch. 19:8hedged in?

24For my sighing comes 3:24 [Ps. 42:3; 80:5; 102:9] instead of3:24 Or like; Hebrew before my bread,

and my 3:24 Ps. 22:1; 38:8groanings are poured out like water.

253:25 [Prov. 10:24]For the thing that I fear comes upon me,

and what I dread befalls me.

26I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;

I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

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