Job laments his birth
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After this Job has opened his mouth, and reviles his day.
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And Job answers and says:
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“Let the day perish in which I am born, || And the night that has said: A man-child has been conceived.
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That day—let it be darkness, || Do not let God require it from above, || Nor let light shine on it.
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Let darkness and death-shade redeem it, || Let a cloud dwell on it, || Let them terrify it as the most bitter of days.
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That night—let thick darkness take it, || Let it not be united to days of the year, || Let it not come into the number of months.
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Behold! That night—let it be barren, || Let no singing come into it.
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Let the cursers of day mark it, || Who are ready to wake up Leviathan.
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Let the stars of its twilight be dark, || Let it wait for light, and there is none, || And let it not look on the eyelids of the dawn.
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Because it has not shut the doors || Of the womb that was mine! And hide misery from my eyes.
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Why do I not die from the womb? I have come forth from the belly and gasp!
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Why have knees been before me? And what [are] breasts, that I suck?
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For now, I have lain down, and am quiet, I have slept—then there is rest to me,
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With kings and counselors of earth, || These building ruins for themselves.
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Or with princes—they have gold, || They are filling their houses [with] silver.
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(Or I am not as a hidden abortion, || As infants—they have not seen light.)
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There the wicked have ceased troubling, || And there the wearied rest in power.
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Together prisoners have been at ease, || They have not heard the voice of an exactor,
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Small and great [are] the same there. And a servant [is] free from his lord.
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Why does He give light to the miserable, and life to the bitter soul?
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Who are waiting for death, and it is not, || And they seek it above hid treasures.
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Who are glad—to joy, || They rejoice when they find a grave.
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To a man whose way has been hidden, || And whom God shuts up?
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For before my food, my sighing comes, || And my roarings [are] poured out as waters.
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For I feared a fear and it meets me, || And what I was afraid of comes to me.
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I was not safe—nor was I quiet—Nor was I at rest—and trouble comes!”
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