God's New Bible

The Book of Job

King James Version 1769 including Apocrypha

- Chapter 3 -

Job laments his birth

1
After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
2
And Job spake, and said,(a)
3
Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
4
Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
5
Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.(b) (c)
6
As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.(d)
7
Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.
8
Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.(e)
9
Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:(f)
10
Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
11
Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
12
Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
13
For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
14
With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;
15
Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
17
There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.(g)
18
There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
19
The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
20
Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
21
Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;(h)
22
Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
24
For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.(i)
25
For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.(j)
26
I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

Footnotes

(a)3:2 spake: Heb. answered
(b)3:5 stain: or, challenge
(c)3:5 let the…: or, let them terrify it, as those who have a bitter day
(d)3:6 let it not be…: or, let it not rejoice among the days
(e)3:8 their…: or, leviathan
(f)3:9 the dawning…: Heb. the eyelids of the morning
(g)3:17 weary: Heb. wearied in strength
(h)3:21 long: Heb. wait
(i)3:24 I eat: Heb. my meat
(j)3:25 the thing…: Heb. I feared a fear, and it came upon me