| International Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1After this, Job spoke up solemnly, cursing the day he was born. | 1After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born. |
| 2This is what Job said: | 2Job spoke up and said: |
| 3"Let the day when I was born be annihilated, along with the night when it was announced, 'It's a boy!' | 3"Let the day on which I was born perish, and the night that said, 'A man has been conceived!' |
| 4Let that day be dark; let God above not care about it; let no light shine over it. | 4That day--let it be darkness; let not God on high regard it, nor let light shine on it! |
| 5Let darkness and deep gloom reclaim it; let clouds settle down on it; let blackness in mid-day terrify it. | 5Let darkness and the deepest shadow claim it; let a cloud settle on it; let whatever blackens the day terrify it! |
| 6Let darkness carry that night away; let it not take its place joyfully among the days of the year; let it not be entered into the calendar. | 6That night--let darkness seize it; let it not be included among the days of the year; let it not enter among the number of the months! |
| 7"Yes, let that night be barren; let it not appear with its joyful shout. | 7Indeed, let that night be barren; let no shout of joy penetrate it! |
| 8Let whoever curses days curse it— those who are ready to awaken monsters. | 8Let those who curse the day curse it--those who are prepared to rouse Leviathan. |
| 9Let the stars of its evening twilight be dark; let it hope for light but let there be none; let it not see the breaking rays of the dawn. | 9Let its morning stars be darkened; let it wait for daylight but find none, nor let it see the first rays of dawn, |
| 10"Because that night refused to shut the doors of my mother's womb; it failed to keep me from seeing this trouble. | 10because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb on me, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes! |
| 11Why didn't I die while I was still in the womb, or die while I was being born? | 11"Why did I not die at birth, and why did I not expire as I came out of the womb? |
| 12Why was there a lap to hold me, and why were there breasts to nurse me? | 12Why did the knees welcome me, and why were there two breasts that I might nurse at them? |
| 13"If I had died, I would be lying down by now, undisturbed, asleep, and at rest, | 13For now I would be lying down and would be quiet, I would be asleep and then at peace |
| 14along with kings and counselors of the earth, who used to build for themselves what are now only ruins, | 14with kings and counselors of the earth who built for themselves places now desolate, |
| 15or princes who amassed gold for themselves, and who kept filling their houses with silver. | 15or with princes who possessed gold, who filled their palaces with silver. |
| 16"Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child, like babies who never saw the light? | 16Or why was I not buried like a stillborn infant, like infants who have never seen the light? |
| 17In that place, the wicked stop causing trouble, and there, those whose strength is exhausted are at rest. | 17There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest. |
| 18In that place, those who once were prisoners will be at ease together; they won't hear the voice of oppressors. | 18There the prisoners relax together; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor. |
| 19The unimportant and the important are both there, and the servant is free from his master. | 19Small and great are there, and the slave is free from his master. |
| 20"Why does God give light to the sufferer or life to the bitter person: | 20"Why does God give light to one who is in misery, and life to those whose soul is bitter, |
| 21To those who are longing for death— even though it does not come? To those who search for it more than for hidden treasure? | 21to those who wait for death that does not come, and search for it more than for hidden treasures, |
| 22To those who are happy beyond measure when they reach their graves? | 22who rejoice even to jubilation, and are exultant when they find the grave? |
| 23To the formerly successful man who lost his way in life, and God fenced him in? | 23Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in? |
| 24"As far as I'm concerned, my food comes to me in the form of sighs, and my cries of anguish pour out like water. | 24For my sighing comes in place of my food, and my groanings flow forth like water. |
| 25For the dreaded thing that I feared has happened to me, what caused me to worry has engulfed me. | 25For the very thing I dreaded has happened to me, and what I feared has come upon me. |
| 26I will not be at ease; I will not be quiet; I will not rest; because trouble has arrived." | 26I have no ease, I have no quietness; I cannot rest; turmoil has come upon me." |
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