1After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2And Job spoke and said,

3"Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night in which it was said, 'A man child is brought forth. '

4Let that day be darkness. Let not God look upon it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

5Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it. Let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

6As for that night, let darkness seize upon it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.

7Lo, let that night be barren; let no joyful voice come in it.

8Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to stir up Leviathan.

9Let the stars of its twilight be dark; let it look for light, but have none. Let it not see the dawning of the day.

10For it did not shut up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide sorrow from my eyes.

11Why did I not die from the womb, why did I not expire when I came from the womb?

12Why did the knees receive me; or why the breasts, that I should suck?

13For now I should have lain still and been quiet; I should have slept. Then I would have been at rest

14With kings and wise men of the earth, who built desolate places for themselves,

15Or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;

16Or as a discarded untimely birth I would not exist, like infants who did not see light.

17There the wicked cease raging, and there the weary are at rest;

18There the prisoners are at rest together; they hear not the voice of the slave driver.

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

20Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,

21Who is waiting for death--but it comes not--and digs for it more than for hidden treasures?

22They are rejoicing to exultation. They are glad when they can find the grave.

23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has made a hedge about?

24For my sighing comes instead of my food, and my groanings are poured out like the waters.

25For the thing which I greatly feared has come upon me, and that which I was afraid of has come to me.

26I was not in safety, I have no rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble comes."