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          DASV: Job 3    

1 After this, Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.
2 Job said:
3 "Let the day perish on which I was born,
     and the night it was said, "A boy has been conceived."
4 Let that day be turned to darkness,
     let God above not seek for it,
           nor let the light shine on it.
5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own.
     Let a dark cloud settle over it;
           let blackness of the day terrify it.
6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it.
     Let it not be counted among the days of the year.
           Let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Let that night be childless.
     Let no joyful sound ring out in it.
8 Let those who curse days, curse that day,
     those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
9 Let its stars of dawn be dark.
     Let it wait for daybreak, but find none,
           nor let it see the beams of the morning light,
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb,
     or hide trouble from my eyes.

11 Why did I not die at birth?
     Why did I not expire as I came from my mother's womb?
12 Why did the knees receive me?
     Why were there breasts that I should nurse?
13 For now I would be lying down and quiet;
     I would have slept and been at rest
14 with kings and advisors of the earth,
     who built places for themselves that are now in ruins,
15 or with princes who had gold,
     who filled their palaces with silver.

16 Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child,
     as infants who never have seen the light?
17 There the wicked cease from causing trouble;
     and there the weary are at rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together,
     they no longer hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there,
     and the slave is free from his master.

20 Why is light given to him who is in misery,
     and life to those bitter in soul,
21 who long for death, but it does not come,
     and search for it more than for hidden treasures;
22 who rejoice full of happiness,
     and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to one whose way is hidden,
     and whom God has hedged in with trouble?

24 For my sighing comes instead of my food,
     and my groanings are poured out like water.
25 For the thing I feared has come on me,
     and that which I was afraid of has overcome me.
26 I have no peace and quiet,
     I have no rest, only trouble has overtaken me."

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