Chapter 3

  After this hath Job opened his mouth, and revileth his day.  

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  And Job answereth and saith: --  

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  Let the day perish in which I am born, And the night that hath said: 'A man-child hath been conceived.'  

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  That day -- let it be darkness, Let not God require it from above, Nor let light shine upon it.  

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  Let darkness and death-shade redeem it, Let a cloud tabernacle upon it, Let them terrify it as the most bitter of days.  

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  That night -- let thick darkness take it, Let it not be united to days of the year, Into the number of months let it not come.  

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  Lo! that night -- let it be gloomy, Let no singing come into it.  

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  Let the cursers of day mark it, Who are ready to wake up Leviathan.  

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  Let the stars of its twilight be dark, Let it wait for light, and there is none, And let it not look on the eyelids of the dawn.  

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  Because it hath not shut the doors Of the womb that was mine! And hide misery from mine eyes.  

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  Why from the womb do I not die? From the belly I have come forth and gasp!  

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  Wherefore have knees been before me? And what [are] breasts, that I suck?  

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  For now, I have lain down, and am quiet, I have slept -- then there is rest to me,  

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  With kings and counsellors of earth, These building wastes for themselves.  

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  Or with princes -- they have gold, They are filling their houses [with] silver.  

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  (Or as a hidden abortion I am not, As infants -- they have not seen light.)  

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  There the wicked have ceased troubling, And there rest do the wearied in power.  

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  Together prisoners have been at ease, They have not heard the voice of an exactor,  

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  Small and great [are] there the same. And a servant [is] free from his lord.  

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  Why giveth He to the miserable light, and life to the bitter soul?  

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  Who are waiting for death, and it is not, And they seek it above hid treasures.  

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  Who are glad -- unto joy, They rejoice when they find a grave.  

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  To a man whose way hath been hidden, And whom God doth shut up?  

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  For before my food, my sighing cometh, And poured out as waters [are] my roarings.  

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  For a fear I feared and it meeteth me, And what I was afraid of doth come to me.  

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  I was not safe -- nor was I quiet -- Nor was I at rest -- and trouble cometh!  

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