171 My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me. 2 Surely there are mockers around me, and my eye dwells on their provocation. 3 "Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there that will give surety for me? 4 Since you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph. 5 Those who denounce friends for reward- the eyes of their children will fail. 6 "He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom people spit. 7 My eye has grown dim from grief, and all my members are like a shadow. 8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless. 9 Yet the righteous hold to their way, and they that have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.

10 But you, come back now, all of you, and I shall not find a sensible person among you. 11 My days are past, my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart. 12 They make night into day; "The light,' they say, "is near to the darkness.' 13 If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness, 14 if I say to the Pit, "You are my father,' and to the worm, "My mother,' or "My sister,' 15 where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? 16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?"

Job Bewails His Birth

31 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 Job said: 3 "Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night that said, "A man-child is conceived.' 4 Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, or light shine on it. 5 Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds settle upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. 6 That night-let thick darkness seize it! let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months. 7 Yes, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry be heard in it. 8 Let those curse it who curse the Sea, those who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan. 9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none; may it not see the eyelids of the morning- 10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, and hide trouble from my eyes.

11 "Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire? 12 Why were there knees to receive me, or breasts for me to suck? 13 Now I would be lying down and quiet; I would be asleep; then I would be at rest 14 with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuild ruins for themselves, 15 or with princes who have gold, who fill their houses with silver. 16 Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child, like an infant that never sees the light? 17 There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. 18 There the prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster. 19 The small and the great are there, and the slaves are free from their masters.

20 "Why is light given to one in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, 21 who long for death, but it does not come, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures; 22 who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they find the grave? 23 Why is light given to one who cannot see the way, whom God has fenced in? 24 For my sighing comes like my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. 25 Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. 26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes."