Job 3–5

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

2Job answered:

3“Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’

4Let that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it.

5Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes the day black terrify it.

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

7Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.

8Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

9Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,

10because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

11“Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?

12Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse?

13For now I should have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

14with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;

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

16or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.

17There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.

18There the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.

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

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

21who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

22who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

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

24For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.

25For the thing which I fear comes on me, that which I am afraid of comes to me.

26I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest; but trouble comes.”

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

2“If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?

3Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands.

4Your words have supported him who was falling, you have made the feeble knees firm.

5But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.

6Isn’t your piety your confidence? Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?

7“Remember, now, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?

8According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble, reap the same.

9By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.

10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

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

12“Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it.

13In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

14fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

15Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.

16It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,

17‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

18Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error.

19How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!

20Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.

21Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’

1“Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

2For resentment kills the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple.

3I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.

4His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,

5whose harvest the hungry eat up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance.

6For affliction doesn’t come out of the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground;

7but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

8“But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God,

9who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number;

10who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields;

11so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety.

12He frustrates the plans of the crafty, so that their hands can’t perform their enterprise.

13He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.

14They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.

15But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty.

16So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.

17“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.

18For he wounds and binds up. He injures and his hands make whole.

19He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil will touch you.

20In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword.

21You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes.

22You will laugh at destruction and famine, neither will you be afraid of the animals of the earth.

23For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you.

24You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing.

25You will know also that your offspring will be great, your offspring as the grass of the earth.

26You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.

27Behold, we have researched it. It is so. Hear it, and know it for your good.”