Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible RHE
The Message Bible MSG
1 After this, Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day,
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Then Job broke the silence. He spoke up and cursed his fate:
2 And he said:
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3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said: A man child is conceived.
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"Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived!
4 Let that day be turned into darkness, let not God regard it from above, and let not the 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 darkness, and the shadow of death, cover it, let a mist overspread it, and let it be wrapped up in bitterness.
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May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night.
6 Let a darksome whirlwind seize upon that night, let it not be counted in the days of the year, nor numbered in 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 Let that night be solitary, and not worthy of praise.
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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 raise up a 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 be darkened with the mist thereof: let it expect light, and not see it, nor the rising of the dawning of the day:
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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 shut not up the doors of the womb that bore me, nor took away evils 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 in the womb? why did I not perish when I came out of the belly?
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"Why didn't I die at birth, my first breath out of the womb my last?
12 Why received upon the knees? why suckled at the breasts?
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Why were there arms to rock me, and breasts for me to drink from?
13 For now I should have been asleep and still, and should have rest in my sleep:
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I could be resting in peace right now, asleep forever, feeling no pain,
14 With kings and consuls of the earth, who build themselves solitudes:
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In the company of kings and statesmen in their royal ruins,
15 Or with princes, that possess gold, and fill 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 should not be; or as they that, being conceived, have not seen 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 tumult, and there the wearied in strength are at rest.
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Where the wicked no longer trouble anyone and bone-weary people get a long-deserved rest?
18 And they sometime bound together without disquiet, have not heard the voice of the oppressor.
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Prisoners sleep undisturbed, never again to wake up to the bark of the guards.
19 The small and great are there, and 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 that is in misery, and life to them that are in bitterness of soul?
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"Why does God bother giving light to the miserable, why bother keeping bitter people alive,
21 That look for death, and it cometh not, as they that dig for a treasure:
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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 And they rejoice exceedingly when they have found the grave?
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Who count the day of their death and burial the happiest day of their life?
23 To a man whose way is hidden, and God hath surrounded him with darkness?
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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 Before I eat I sigh: and as overflowing waters, so is my roaring:
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"Instead of bread I get groans for my supper, then leave the table and vomit my anguish.
25 For the fear which I feared, hath come upon me: and that which I was afraid of, hath befallen me.
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The worst of my fears has come true, what I've dreaded most has happened.
26 Have I not dissembled? have I not kept silence? have I not been quiet? and indignation is come upon me.
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My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed. No rest for me, ever - death has invaded life."
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.
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.