Job 3-4

Job 3

¹Then, opening his mouth, and cursing the day of his birth,

²Job made answer and said,

³Let destruction take the day of my birth, and the night on which it was said, A man child has come into the world.

⁴That day — let it be dark; let not God take note of it from on high, and let not the light be shining on it;

⁵Let 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.

⁶That 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.

⁷As for that night, let it have no fruit; let no voice of joy be sounded in it;

⁸Let it be cursed by those who put a curse on the day; who are ready to make Leviathan awake.

⁹Let 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.

¹⁰Because it did not keep the doors of my mother's body shut, so that trouble might be veiled from my eyes.

¹¹Why 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?

¹²Why did the knees take me, or why the breasts that they might give me milk?

¹³For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in sleep have been in peace,

¹⁴With kings and the wise ones of the earth, who put up great houses for themselves;

¹⁵Or with rulers who had gold, and whose houses were full of silver;

¹⁶Or as a child dead at birth I might never have come into existence; like young children who have not seen the light.

¹⁷There the passions of the evil are over, and those whose strength has come to an end have rest.

¹⁸There the prisoners are at peace together; the voice of the overseer comes not again to their ears.

¹⁹The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master.

²⁰Why does he give light to him who is in trouble, and life to the bitter in soul;

²¹To those whose desire is for death, but it comes not; who are searching for it more than for secret wealth;

²²Who are glad with great joy, and full of delight when they come to their last resting-place;

²³To a man whose way is veiled, and who is shut in by God?

²⁴In place of my food I have grief, and cries of sorrow come from me like water.

²⁵For I have a fear and it comes on me, and my heart is greatly troubled.

²⁶I have no peace, no quiet, and no rest; nothing but pain comes on me.

Job 4

¹And Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said,

²If one says a word, will it be a weariness to you? but who is able to keep from saying what is in his mind?

³Truly, you have been a helper to others, and you have made feeble hands strong;

⁴He who was near to falling has been lifted up by your words, and you have given strength to bent knees.

⁵But now it has come on you and it is a weariness to you; you are touched by it and your mind is troubled.

⁶Is not your fear of God your support, and your upright way of life your hope?

⁷Have you ever seen destruction come to an upright man? or when were the god-fearing ever cut off?

⁸What I have seen is that those by whom trouble has been ploughed, and evil planted, get the same for themselves.

⁹By the breath of God destruction takes them, and by the wind of his wrath they are cut off.

¹⁰Though the noise of the lion and the sounding of his voice, may be loud, the teeth of the young lions are broken.

¹¹The old lion comes to his end for need of food, and the young of the she-lion go wandering in all directions.

¹²A word was given to me secretly, and the low sound of it came to my ears.

¹³In troubled thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep comes on men,

¹⁴Fear came on me and shaking, and my bones were full of trouble;

¹⁵And a breath was moving over my face; the hair of my flesh became stiff:

¹⁶Something was present before me, but I was not able to see it clearly; there was a form before my eyes: a quiet voice came to my ears, saying:

¹⁷May a man be upright before God? or a man be clean before his Maker?

¹⁸Truly, he puts no faith in his servants, and he sees error in his angels;

¹⁹How much more those living in houses of earth, whose bases are in the dust! They are crushed more quickly than an insect;

²⁰Between morning and evening they are completely broken; they come to an end for ever, and no one takes note.

²¹If their tent-cord is pulled up, do they not come to an end, and without wisdom?