Chapter 3

  Then, opening his mouth, and cursing the day of his birth,  

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  Job made answer and said,  

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  Let destruction take the day of my birth, and the night on which it was said, A man child has come into the world.  

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  That day--let it be dark; let not God take note of it from on high, and let not the light be shining on it;  

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  Let the dark and the black night take it for themselves; let it be covered with a cloud; let the dark shades of day send fear on it.  

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  That night--let the thick dark take it; let it not have joy among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.  

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  As for that night, let it have no fruit; let no voice of joy be sounded in it;  

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  Let it be cursed by those who put a curse on the day; who are ready to make Leviathan awake.  

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  Let its morning stars be dark; let it be looking for light, but may it not have any; let it not see the eyes of the dawn.  

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  Because it did not keep the doors of my mother's body shut, so that trouble might be veiled from my eyes.  

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  Why did death not take me when I came out of my mother's body, why did I not, when I came out, give up my last breath?  

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  Why did the knees take me, or why the breasts that they might give me milk?  

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  For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in sleep have been in peace,  

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  With kings and the wise ones of the earth, who put up great houses for themselves;  

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  Or with rulers who had gold, and whose houses were full of silver;  

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  Or as a child dead at birth I might never have come into existence; like young children who have not seen the light.  

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  There the passions of the evil are over, and those whose strength has come to an end have rest.  

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  There the prisoners are at peace together; the voice of the overseer comes not again to their ears.  

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  The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master.  

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  Why does he give light to him who is in trouble, and life to the bitter in soul;  

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  To those whose desire is for death, but it comes not; who are searching for it more than for secret wealth;  

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  Who are glad with great joy, and full of delight when they come to their last resting-place;  

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  To a man whose way is veiled, and who is shut in by God?  

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  In place of my food I have grief, and cries of sorrow come from me like water.  

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  For I have a fear and it comes on me, and my heart is greatly troubled.  

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  I have no peace, no quiet, and no rest; nothing but pain comes on me.  

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