3:1  AFTER THIS, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day (birthday).

3:2  And Job said,

3:3  Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which announced, There is a man-child conceived.

3:4  Let that day be darkness! May not God above regard it, nor light shine upon it.

3:5  Let gloom and deep darkness claim it for their own; let a cloud dwell upon it; let all that blackens the day terrify it (the day that I was born).

3:6  As for 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.

3:7  Yes, let that night be solitary {and} barren; let no joyful voice come into it.

3:8  Let those curse it who curse the day, who are skilled in rousing up Leviathan.

3:9  Let the stars of the early dawn of that day be dark; let [the morning] look in vain for the light, nor let it behold the day's dawning,

3:10  Because it shut not the doors of my mother's womb nor hid sorrow {and} trouble from my eyes.

3:11  Why was I not stillborn? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bore me?

3:12  Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck?

3:13  For then would I have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then would I have been at rest [in death]

3:14  With kings and counselors of the earth, who built up [now] desolate ruins for themselves,

3:15  Or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

3:16  Or [why] was I not a miscarriage, hidden {and} put away, as infants who never saw light?

3:17  There [in death] the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.

3:18  There the [captive] prisoners rest together; they hear not the taskmaster's voice.

3:19  The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master.

3:20  Why is light [of life] given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,

3:21  Who long {and} wait for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

3:22  Who rejoice exceedingly and are elated when they find the grave?

3:23  [Why is the light of day given] to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in?

3:24  For my sighing comes before my food, and my groanings are poured out like water.

3:25  For the thing which I greatly fear comes upon me, and that of which I am afraid befalls me.

3:26  I was not {or} am not at ease, nor had I {or} have I rest, nor was I {or} am I quiet, yet trouble came {and} still comes [upon me].