Job 3-4

Complete Jewish Bible

3 ⁽²⁾Iyov said,

²⁽³⁾“Perish the day I was born
and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’
³⁽⁴⁾May that day be darkness,
may God on high not seek it,
may no light shine on it,
⁴⁽⁵⁾may gloom dark as death defile it,
may clouds settle on it,
may it be terrified by its own blackness.

⁵⁽⁶⁾“As for that night, may thick darkness seize it,
may it not be joined to the days of the year,
may it not be numbered among the months;
⁶⁽⁷⁾may that night be desolate,
may no cry of joy be heard in it;
⁷⁽⁸⁾may those who curse days curse it,
those who[se curses] could rouse Livyatan;
⁸⁽⁹⁾may the stars of its twilight be dark,
may it look for light but get none,
may it never see the shimmer of dawn —
⁹⁽¹⁰⁾because it didn’t shut the doors of the womb I was in
and shield my eyes from trouble.

¹⁰⁽¹¹⁾“If I had been stillborn,
if I had died at birth,
¹¹⁽¹²⁾had there been no knees to receive me
or breasts for me to suck.
¹²⁽¹³⁾Then I would be lying still and in peace,
I would have slept and been at rest,
¹³⁽¹⁴⁾along with kings and their earthly advisers,
who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
¹⁴⁽¹⁵⁾or with princes who had [plenty of] gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
¹⁵⁽¹⁶⁾Or I could have been like a hidden, miscarried
child that never saw light.

¹⁶⁽¹⁷⁾“There the wicked cease their raging,
there the weary are at rest,
¹⁷⁽¹⁸⁾prisoners live at peace together
without hearing a taskmaster’s yells.
¹⁸⁽¹⁹⁾Great and small alike are there,
and the slave is free of his master.

¹⁹⁽²⁰⁾“So why must light be given to the miserable
and life to the bitter in spirit?
²⁰⁽²¹⁾They long for death, but it never comes;
they search for it more than for buried treasure;
²¹⁽²²⁾when at last they find the grave,
they are so happy they shout for joy.
²²⁽²³⁾[Why give light] to a man who wanders blindly,
whom God shuts in on every side?

²³⁽²⁴⁾“My sighing serves in place of my food,
and my groans pour out in a torrent;
²⁴⁽²⁵⁾for the thing I feared has overwhelmed me,
what I dreaded has happened to me.
²⁵⁽²⁶⁾I have no peace, no quiet, no rest;
and anguish keeps coming.”

4 Then Elifaz the Teimani spoke up:

²“If one tries to speak to you, will you mind?
Yet who could keep from speaking?
³You have given moral instruction to many,
you have firmed up feeble hands,
⁴your words have supported those who were stumbling,
and you have strengthened the weak-kneed.

⁵“But now it comes to you, and you are impatient;
at the first touch, you are in shock.
⁶Isn’t your fear of God your assurance,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷“Think back: what innocent person has perished?
Since when are the upright destroyed?
⁸What I see is that those who plow sin
and sow trouble reap just that.
⁹At a breath from God, they perish;
at a blast from his anger, they are consumed.
¹⁰The lion may growl, the king lion may roar,
but that old lion’s teeth are broken;
¹¹so the lion succumbs from lack of prey,
and the lion’s cubs are scattered.

¹²“For a word was stealthily brought to me,
my ear caught only a whisper of it.
¹³In passing thoughts flashing through visions at night,
when sleep lies heavy on people,
¹⁴a shiver of horror came over me;
it made all my bones tremble.
¹⁵Then a spirit passed in front of my face;
the hair of my flesh stood on end.
¹⁶It stood still,
but I couldn’t make out its appearance;
yet the form stayed there before my eyes.
Then I heard a subdued voice:
¹⁷‘Can a human be seen by God as righteous?
Can a mortal be pure before his maker?
¹⁸[God] doesn’t trust his own servants,
he finds fault even with his angels;
¹⁹much more those living in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust.
They are crushed more easily than a worm;
²⁰shattered between morning and evening;
they perish forever, and no one takes notice.
²¹Their cord within them is pulled up;
then they die, without ever gaining wisdom.’