New English Translation

Job 3:3-12

3“Let the day on which I was born perish, and the night that said, ‘A man has been conceived!’

4That day – let it be darkness; let not God on high regard it, nor let light shine on it!

5Let darkness and the deepest shadow claim it; let a cloud settle on it; let whatever blackens the day terrify it!

6That night – let darkness seize it; let it not be included among the days of the year; let it not enter among the number of the months!

7Indeed, let that night be barren; let no shout of joy penetrate it!

8Let those who curse the day curse it – those who are prepared to rouse Leviathan.

9Let its morning stars be darkened; let it wait for daylight but find none, nor let it see the first rays of dawn,

10because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb on me, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes!

11 1“Why did I not die at birth, and why did I not expire as I came out of the womb?

12Why did the knees welcome me, and why were there two breasts that I might nurse at them?

Notes

1. Job 3:11 Job follows his initial cry with a series of rhetorical questions. His argument runs along these lines: since he was born (v. 10), the next chance he had of escaping this life of misery would have been to be still born (vv. 11-12, 16). In vv. 13-19 Job considers death as falling into a peaceful sleep in a place where there is no trouble. The high frequency of rhetorical questions in series is a characteristic of the Book of Job that sets it off from all other portions of the OT. The effect is primarily dramatic, creating a tension that requires resolution. See W. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry, 340-41. ↩