1 After this Iyoḇ opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
2 And Iyoḇ spoke, and said,
3 “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night it was said, ‘A male child has been conceived.’
4 Let that day be darkness. Let not Eloah from above seek for it, nor let light shine upon it.
5 Let darkness and the shadow of death buy it back, let a cloud dwell on it, let all that blackens the day frighten it.
6 That night – let darkness seize it. Let it not be included among the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Look, let that night be silent! Let no singing come into it!
8 Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to stir up Liwiathan.
9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it wait for light, but have none. And let it not see the eyelashes of the dawn.
10 For it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.
11 Why did I not die from the womb, come forth from the belly and expire?
12 Why were there knees to receive me? Or breasts for me to suck?
13 For now I would have been lying in peace. I would have slept – then I would have been at rest,
14 with sovereigns and counsellors of the earth, who built ruins for themselves,
15 or with rulers who had gold, who filled their houses with silver,
16 or as a hidden untimely birth, as infants who never saw light?
17 There the wrong cease raging, and there the weary are at rest,
18 the prisoners rest together, they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
19 The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master.
20 Why does He give light to the sufferer, and life to the bitter of being,
21 who are waiting for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than treasures;
22 who rejoice exceedingly, they are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why does He give light to a man whose way has been hidden, and whom Eloah has hedged in?
24 For my sighing comes before I eat, and my groanings pour out like water.
25 For that which I greatly feared has come upon me, and that which I dreaded has overtaken me.
26 I have not been at ease, nor have I been undisturbed, nor been at rest, yet trouble comes!”