| 3:1 | After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
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| 3:2 | He said |
| 3:3 | "May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, "A boy is born!"
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| 3:4 | That day-- may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine upon it.
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| 3:5 | May darkness and deep shadow claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm its light.
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| 3:6 | That night-- may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year nor be entered in any of the months.
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| 3:7 | May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it.
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| 3:8 | May those who curse days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
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| 3:9 | May its morning stars become dark; may it wait for daylight in vain and not see the first rays of dawn,
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| 3:10 | for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes.
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| 3:11 | "Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?
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| 3:12 | Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed?
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| 3:13 | For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest
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| 3:14 | with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves places now lying in ruins,
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| 3:15 | with rulers who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
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| 3:16 | Or why was I not hidden in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day?
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| 3:17 | There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest.
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| 3:18 | Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver's shout.
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| 3:19 | The small and the great are there, and the slave is freed from his master.
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| 3:20 | "Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul,
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| 3:21 | to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure,
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| 3:22 | who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave?
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| 3:23 | Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
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| 3:24 | For sighing comes to me instead of food; my groans pour out like water.
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| 3:25 | What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.
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| 3:26 | I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil."
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| 4:1 | Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied |
| 4:2 | "If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?
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| 4:3 | Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands.
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| 4:4 | Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees.
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| 4:5 | But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
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| 4:6 | Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?
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| 4:7 | "Consider now |
| 4:8 | As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.
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| 4:9 | At the breath of God they are destroyed; at the blast of his anger they perish.
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| 4:10 | The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.
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| 4:11 | The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
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| 4:12 | "A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it.
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| 4:13 | Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
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| 4:14 | fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake.
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| 4:15 | A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end.
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| 4:16 | It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice |
| 4:17 | "Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
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| 4:18 | If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error,
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| 4:19 | how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth!
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| 4:20 | Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever.
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| 4:21 | Are not the cords of their tent pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?"
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