3:1. After this, Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day,
Cursed his day.... Job cursed the day of his birth, not by way of
wishing evil to any thing of God’s creation; but only to express in a
stronger manner his sense of human miseries in general, and of his own
calamities in particular.
3:2. And he said:
3:3. Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it
was said: A man child is conceived.
3:4. Let that day be turned into darkness, let not God regard it from
above, and let not the light shine upon it.
3:5. Let darkness, and the shadow of death, cover it, let a mist
overspread it, and let it be wrapped up in bitterness.
3:6. Let a darksome whirlwind seize upon that night, let it not be
counted in the days of the year, nor numbered in the months.
3:7. Let that night be solitary, and not worthy of praise.
3:8. Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to raise up a
leviathan:
3:9. Let the stars be darkened with the mist thereof: let it expect
light, and not see it, nor the rising of the dawning of the day:
3:10. Because it shut not up the doors of the womb that bore me, nor
took away evils from my eyes.
3:11. Why did I not die in the womb? why did I not perish when I came
out of the belly?
3:12. Why received upon the knees? why suckled at the breasts?
3:13. For now I should have been asleep and still, and should have rest
in my sleep:
3:14. With kings and consuls of the earth, who build themselves
solitudes:
3:15. Or with princes, that possess gold, and fill their houses with
silver:
3:16. Or as a hidden untimely birth, I should not be; or as they that,
being conceived, have not seen the light.
3:17. There the wicked cease from tumult, and there the wearied in
strength are at rest.
3:18. And they sometime bound together without disquiet, have not heard
the voice of the oppressor.
3:19. The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his
master.
3:20. Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to them
that are in bitterness of soul?
3:21. That look for death, and it cometh not, as they that dig for a
treasure:
3:22. And they rejoice exceedingly when they have found the grave?
3:23. To a man whose way is hidden, and God hath surrounded him with
darkness?
3:24. Before I eat I sigh: and as overflowing waters, so is my roaring:
3:25. For the fear which I feared, hath come upon me: and that which I
was afraid of, hath befallen me.
3:26. Have I not dissembled? have I not kept silence? have I not been
quiet? and indignation is come upon me.