Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 After this Iyov 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 Iyov answered:
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3 "Let the day perish in which I was born, The night which said, 'There is a man-child conceived.'
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"Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived!
4 Let that day be darkness; Don't let God from above seek for it, Neither let the light shine on 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 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.
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May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night.
6 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.
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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 voice come therein.
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Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness - no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever!
8 Let them curse it who curse the day, Who are ready to rouse up livyatan.
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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 the twilight of it be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, Neither let it 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 didn't shut up the doors of my mother's womb, Nor did it 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 didn't I die from the womb? Why didn't I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
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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 breast, that I should suck?
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Why were there arms to rock me, and breasts for me to drink from?
13 For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should 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 eretz, Who built up waste places 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 as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants who never saw 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; 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 don't hear 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. The servant 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, 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 doesn't come; 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, Are glad, when they can 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 hid, 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 before I eat, 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 which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid of comes to 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, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; But trouble comes."
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My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed. No rest for me, ever - death has invaded life."
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.