A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Job 3
Chapter summary coming soon.
Verse 1. After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
Verse 2. And this is what he said:
Verse 3. “May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is conceived.’
Verse 4. If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above disregard it; may no light shine upon it.
Verse 5. May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
Verse 6. If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year; may it never be entered in any of the months.
Verse 7. Behold, may that night be barren; may no joyful voice come into it.
Verse 8. May it be cursed by those who curse the day—those prepared to rouse Leviathan.
Verse 9. May its morning stars grow dark; may it wait in vain for daylight; may it not see the breaking of dawn.
Verse 10. For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.
Verse 11. Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?
Verse 12. Why were there knees to receive me, and breasts that I should be nursed?
Verse 13. For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest
Verse 14. with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves cities now in ruins,
Verse 15. or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
Verse 16. Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?
Verse 17. There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest.
Verse 18. The captives enjoy their ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
Verse 19. Both small and great are there, and the slave is freed from his master.
Verse 20. Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,
Verse 21. who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure,
Verse 22. who rejoice and greatly exult when they reach the grave?
Verse 23. Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
Verse 24. I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.
Verse 25. For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me.
Verse 26. I am not at ease or quiet; I have no rest, for trouble has come.”