1After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.2And Job spake, and said,3Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.4Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.5Let darkness and the shadow of death stain 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 be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.7Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.8Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.9Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:10Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.11Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?12Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?13For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,14With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;15Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:16Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.17There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.18There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.19The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.20Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;21Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;22Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?23Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?24For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.25For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.26I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

1But Job answered and said,2Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!3For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up.4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.5Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder?6Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?7The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat.8Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!9Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!10Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.11What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?12Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?13Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me?14To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.15My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;16Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid:17What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.18The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.19The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them.20They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.21For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid.22Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?23Or, Deliver me from the enemy's hand? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?24Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.25How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?26Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?27Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend.28Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is evident unto you if I lie.29Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it.30Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?

1Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?2As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:3So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.4When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.5My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.6My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.7O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.8The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.9As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.10He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.11Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.12Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?13When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;14Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:15So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.16I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.17What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?18And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?19How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?20I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?21And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.9As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.10He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.13When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;19How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

1Then Job answered and said,2Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.3Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!4I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.5I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.6Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.7There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.8Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:9On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:10But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.11My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.12Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.13But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.14For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.15Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.16For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me:17Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.

1But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.2Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?3For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.4Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.5They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)6To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.7Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.8They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.9And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.10They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.11Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.12Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.13They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.14They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.15Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.16And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.17My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.18By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.19He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.20I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.21Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.22Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.23For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.24Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.25Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?26When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.27My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.28I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.29I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.30My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.31My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.