| 1 | After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. |
| 2 | And Job said: |
| 3 | "Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which said, `A man-child is conceived.' |
| 4 | Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it. |
| 5 | Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. |
| 6 | That night -- let thick darkness seize it! let it not rejoice among the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months. |
| 7 | Yea, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry be heard in it. |
| 8 | Let those curse it who curse the day, who are skilled to rouse up Levi'athan. |
| 9 | Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning; |
| 10 | because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes. |
| 11 | "Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire? |
| 12 | Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck? |
| 13 | For then I should have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then I should have been at rest, |
| 14 | with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves, |
| 15 | or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. |
| 16 | Or why was I not as a hidden untimely birth, as infants that never see the light? |
| 17 | There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. |
| 18 | There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster. |
| 19 | The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master. |
| 20 | "Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, |
| 21 | who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hid treasures; |
| 22 | who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they find the grave? |
| 23 | Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom God has hedged in? |
| 24 | For my sighing comes as my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. |
| 25 | For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. |
| 26 | I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes." |
| 1 | Then Eli'phaz the Te'manite answered: |
| 2 | "If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended? Yet who can keep from speaking? |
| 3 | Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. |
| 4 | Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. |
| 5 | But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. |
| 6 | Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? |
| 7 | "Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? |
| 8 | As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. |
| 9 | By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. |
| 10 | The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken. |
| 11 | The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered. |
| 12 | "Now a word was brought to me stealthily, my ear received the whisper of it. |
| 13 | Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, |
| 14 | dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. |
| 15 | A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up. |
| 16 | It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: |
| 17 | `Can mortal man be righteous before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? |
| 18 | Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error; |
| 19 | how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth. |
| 20 | Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish for ever without any regarding it. |
| 21 | If their tent-cord is plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?' |
