Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 Finally Job broke the silence and cursed the day on which he had been born.
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After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.
2 O God, put a curse on the day I was born; put a curse on the night when I was conceived!
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Job answered:
4 Turn that day into darkness, God. Never again remember that day; never again let light shine on it.
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Let that day be darkness; Don't let God from above seek for it, Neither let the light shine on it.
5 Make it a day of gloom and thick darkness; cover it with clouds, and blot out the sun.
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Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.
6 Blot that night out of the year, and never let it be counted again;
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As 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.
7 make it a barren, joyless night.
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Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Tell the sorcerers to curse that day, those who know how to control Leviathan.
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Let them curse it who curse the day, Who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
9 Keep the morning star from shining; give that night no hope of dawn.
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Let the stars of the twilight of it be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, Neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,
10 Curse that night for letting me be born, for exposing me to trouble and grief.
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Because it didn't shut up the doors of my mother's womb, Nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
11 I wish I had died in my mother's womb or died the moment I was born.
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"Why didn't I die from the womb? Why didn't I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
12 Why did my mother hold me on her knees? Why did she feed me at her breast?
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Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should suck?
13 If I had died then, I would be at rest now,
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For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,
14 sleeping like the kings and rulers who rebuilt ancient palaces.
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With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves;
15 Then I would be sleeping like princes who filled their houses with gold and silver,
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Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with silver:
16 or sleeping like a stillborn child.
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Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants who never saw light.
17 In the grave wicked people stop their evil, and tired workers find rest at last.
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There the wicked cease from troubling; There the weary are at rest.
18 Even prisoners enjoy peace, free from shouts and harsh commands.
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There the prisoners are at ease together. They don't hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19 Everyone is there, the famous and the unknown, and slaves at last are free.
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The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.
20 Why let people go on living in misery? Why give light to those in grief?
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"Why is light given to him who is in misery, Life to the bitter in soul,
21 They wait for death, but it never comes; they prefer a grave to any treasure.
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Who long for death, but it doesn't come; Dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22 They are not happy till they are dead and buried;
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Who rejoice exceedingly, Are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 God keeps their future hidden and hems them in on every side.
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Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, Whom God has hedged in?
24 Instead of eating, I mourn, and I can never stop groaning.
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For my sighing comes before I eat, My groanings are poured out like water.
25 Everything I fear and dread comes true.
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For the thing which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid of comes to me.
26 I have no peace, no rest, and my troubles never end.
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I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; But trouble comes."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.