English Standard Version ESV
The Message Bible MSG
1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
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Then Job broke the silence. He spoke up and cursed his fate:
2 And Job said:
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3 "Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, 'A man is conceived.'
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"Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived!
4 Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.
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Let it be a black hole in space. May God above forget it ever happened. Erase it from the books!
5 Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
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May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night.
6 That night--let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.
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And the night of my conception - the devil take it! Rip the date off the calendar, delete it from the almanac.
7 Behold, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry enter it.
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Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness - no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever!
8 Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
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May those who are good at cursing curse that day. Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it.
9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning,
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May its morning stars turn to black cinders, waiting for a daylight that never comes, never once seeing the first light of dawn.
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.
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And why? Because it released me from my mother's womb into a life with so much trouble.
11 "Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?
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"Why didn't I die at birth, my first breath out of the womb my last?
12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
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Why were there arms to rock me, and breasts for me to drink from?
13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
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I could be resting in peace right now, asleep forever, feeling no pain,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
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In the company of kings and statesmen in their royal ruins,
15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
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Or with princes resplendent in their gold and silver tombs.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?
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Why wasn't I stillborn and buried with all the babies who never saw light,
17 There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.
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Where the wicked no longer trouble anyone and bone-weary people get a long-deserved rest?
18 There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
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Prisoners sleep undisturbed, never again to wake up to the bark of the guards.
19 The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.
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The small and the great are equals in that place, and slaves are free from their masters.
20 "Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,
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"Why does God bother giving light to the miserable, why bother keeping bitter people alive,
21 who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
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Those who want in the worst way to die, and can't, who can't imagine anything better than death,
22 who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave?
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Who count the day of their death and burial the happiest day of their life?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
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What's the point of life when it doesn't make sense, when God blocks all the roads to meaning?
24 For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.
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"Instead of bread I get groans for my supper, then leave the table and vomit my anguish.
25 For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.
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The worst of my fears has come true, what I've dreaded most has happened.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes."
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My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed. No rest for me, ever - death has invaded life."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.