Study Desk

After this, opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

So then Job began, and said:

Perish, the day wherein I was born, and the night it was said, Lo! a manchild!

That day, be it darkness, - Let not God enquire after it from above, May there shine upon it no clear beam:

Let darkness and death-shade buy it back, May there settle down upon it a cloud, Let a day's dark eclipse cause it terror:

That night, darkness take it, - May it not rejoice among the days of the year, Into the number of months, let it not enter.

Lo! that night, be it barren, Let no joyous shouting enter therein:

Let day-cursers denounce it, Those skilled in rousing the dragon of the sky:

Darkened be the stars of its twilight, - Let it wait for light, and there be none, neither let it see the eyelashes of the dawn:

Because it closed not the doors of the womb wherein I was, and so hid trouble from mine eyes.

Wherefore, in the womb, did I not die? From the womb, come forth and cease to breathe?

For what reason, were there prepared for me - knees? and why - breasts, that I might suck?

Surely, at once, had I lain down, and been quiet, I had fallen asleep, then, had I been at rest:

With kings, and counselors of the earth, who had built them pyramids:

Or with rulers possessing, gold, - Who had filled their houses with silver:

Or that, like an untimely birth hidden away, I had not come into being, like infants that never saw light:

There, the lawless, cease from raging, and there the toil-worn are at rest:

At once are prisoners at peace, they hear not the voice of a driver:

Small and great, there, they are, and, the slave, is free from his master.

Wherefore give, to the wretched, light? Or, life, to the embittered in soul? -

Who long for death, and it is not, And have digged for it, beyond hid treasures:

Who rejoice unto exultation, Are glad, when they can find the grave:

To a man, whose way is concealed, And GOD hath straitly enclosed him?

For, in the face of my food, my sighing, cometh in, and, poured out like the water, are my groans:

For, a dread, I dreaded, and it hath come upon me, and, that from which I shrank, hath overtaken me.

I was not careless, nor was I secure, nor had I settled down, - when there came - consternation!