II. Job’s Dialogue With His Friends
(3:1-27:33) 1
3:1 After this Job opened his mouth 2 and cursed 3 the day he was born. 4 3:2 Job spoke up 5 and said:
3:3 “Let the day on which 6 I was born 7 perish,
and the night that said, 8
‘A man 9 has been conceived!’ 10
3:4 That day 11 – let it be darkness; 12
let not God on high regard 13 it,
nor let light shine 14 on it!
3:5 Let darkness and the deepest
shadow 15 claim it; 16
let a cloud settle on it;
let whatever blackens the day 17 terrify it!
3:6 That night – let darkness seize 18 it;
let it not be included 19 among the days of the year;
let it not enter among the number of the months! 20
3:7 Indeed, 21 let that night be barren; 22
let no shout of joy 23 penetrate 24 it!
3:8 Let those who curse the day 25 curse it 26 –
those who are prepared to rouse 27 Leviathan. 28
3:9 Let its morning stars 29 be darkened;
let it wait 30 for daylight but find none, 31
nor let it see the first rays 32 of dawn,
3:10 because it 33 did not shut the doors 34 of my mother’s womb on me, 35
nor did it hide trouble 36 from my eyes!
3:11 “Why did I not 38 die 39 at birth, 40
and why did I not expire
as 41 I came out of the womb?
3:12 Why did the knees welcome me, 42
and why were there 43 two breasts 44
that I might nurse at them? 45
3:13 For now 46 I would be lying down
and 47 would be quiet, 48
I would be asleep and then at peace 49
3:14 with kings and counselors of the earth
who built for themselves places now desolate, 50
3:15 or with princes who possessed gold, 51
who filled their palaces 52 with silver.
3:16 Or why 53 was 54 I not buried 55
like a stillborn infant, 56
like infants 57 who have never seen the light? 58
3:17 There 59 the wicked 60 cease 61 from turmoil, 62
and there the weary 63 are at rest.
3:18 There 64 the prisoners 65 relax 66 together; 67
they do not hear the voice of the oppressor. 68
3:19 Small and great are 69 there,
and the slave is free 70 from his master. 71
3:20 “Why does God 73 give 74 light to one who is in misery, 75
and life to those 76 whose soul is bitter,
3:21 to 77 those who wait 78 for death that 79 does not come,
and search for it 80
more than for hidden treasures,
3:22 who rejoice 81 even to jubilation, 82
and are exultant 83 when 84 they find the grave? 85
3:23 Why is light given 86 to a man 87
whose way is hidden, 88
and whom God has hedged in? 89
3:24 For my sighing comes in place of 90 my food, 91
and my groanings 92 flow forth like water. 93
3:25 For the very thing I dreaded 94 has happened 95 to me,
and what I feared has come upon me. 96
3:26 I have no ease, 97 I have no quietness;
I cannot rest; 98 turmoil has come upon me.” 99