Job 3-4

Job 3

¹After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

²And this is what he said:

³“May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is conceived.’

⁴If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above disregard it; may no light shine upon it.

⁵May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.

⁶If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year; may it never be entered in any of the months.

⁷Behold, may that night be barren; may no joyful voice come into it.

⁸May it be cursed by those who curse the day — those prepared to rouse Leviathan.

⁹May its morning stars grow dark; may it wait in vain for daylight; may it not see the breaking of dawn.

¹⁰For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.

¹¹Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?

¹²Why were there knees to receive me, and breasts that I should be nursed?

¹³For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest

¹⁴with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves cities now in ruins,

¹⁵or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

¹⁶Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?

¹⁷There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest.

¹⁸The captives enjoy their ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

¹⁹Both small and great are there, and the slave is freed from his master.

²⁰Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,

²¹who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure,

²²who rejoice and greatly exult when they can find the grave?

²³Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

²⁴I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.

²⁵For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me.

²⁶I am not at ease or quiet; I have no rest, for trouble has come.”

Job 4

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²“If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking?

³Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.

⁴Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.

⁵But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.

⁶Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope?

⁷Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?

⁸As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.

⁹By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

¹⁰The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.

¹¹The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹²Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.

¹³In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

¹⁴fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder.

¹⁵Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled.

¹⁶It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes, and I heard a whispering voice:

¹⁷‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?

¹⁸If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,

¹⁹how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!

²⁰They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.

²¹Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’