Job Bewails His Present Affliction

301 "But no longer. Now I'm the butt of their jokes - young ruffians! whippersnappers! 2 Why, I considered their fathers mere inexperienced pups. But they are worse than dogs - good for nothing, stray, mangy animals, 3 Half-starved, scavenging the back alleys, howling at the moon; 4 Homeless guttersnipes chewing on old bones and licking old tin cans; 5 Outcasts from the community, cursed as dangerous delinquents. 6 Nobody would put up with them; they were driven from the neighborhood. 7 You could hear them out there at the edge of town, yelping and barking, huddled in junkyards, 8 A gang of beggars and no-names, thrown out on their ears. 9 "But now I'm the one they're after, mistreating me, taunting and mocking. 10 They abhor me, they abuse me. How dare those scoundrels - they spit in my face! 11 Now that God has undone me and left me in a heap, they hold nothing back. Anything goes. 12 They come at me from my blind side, trip me up, then jump on me while I'm down. 13 They throw every kind of obstacle in my path, determined to ruin me - and no one lifts a finger to help me! 14 They violate my broken body, trample through the rubble of my ruined life.

15 Terrors assault me - my dignity in shreds, salvation up in smoke. 16 "And now my life drains out, as suffering seizes and grips me hard. 17 Night gnaws at my bones; the pain never lets up. 18 I am tied hand and foot, my neck in a noose. I twist and turn. 19 Thrown facedown in the muck, I'm a muddy mess, inside and out. What Did I Do to Deserve This? 20 "I shout for help, God, and get nothing, no answer! I stand to face you in protest, and you give me a blank stare! 21 You've turned into my tormenter - you slap me around, knock me about. 22 You raised me up so I was riding high and then dropped me, and I crashed. 23 I know you're determined to kill me, to put me six feet under. 24 "What did I do to deserve this? Did I ever hit anyone who was calling for help? 25 Haven't I wept for those who live a hard life, been heartsick over the lot of the poor? 26 But where did it get me? I expected good but evil showed up. I looked for light but darkness fell. 27 My stomach's in a constant churning, never settles down. Each day confronts me with more suffering. 28 I walk under a black cloud. The sun is gone. I stand in the congregation and protest. 29 I howl with the jackals, I hoot with the owls. 30 I'm black and blue all over, burning up with fever. 31 My fiddle plays nothing but the blues; my mouth harp wails laments.

Job Bewails His Birth

31 Then Job broke the silence. He spoke up and cursed his fate: 2  3 "Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived! 4 Let it be a black hole in space. May God above forget it ever happened. Erase it from the books! 5 May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night. 6 And the night of my conception - the devil take it! Rip the date off the calendar, delete it from the almanac. 7 Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness - no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever! 8 May those who are good at cursing curse that day. Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it. 9 May its morning stars turn to black cinders, waiting for a daylight that never comes, never once seeing the first light of dawn. 10 And why? Because it released me from my mother's womb into a life with so much trouble.

11 "Why didn't I die at birth, my first breath out of the womb my last? 12 Why were there arms to rock me, and breasts for me to drink from? 13 I could be resting in peace right now, asleep forever, feeling no pain, 14 In the company of kings and statesmen in their royal ruins, 15 Or with princes resplendent in their gold and silver tombs. 16 Why wasn't I stillborn and buried with all the babies who never saw light, 17 Where the wicked no longer trouble anyone and bone-weary people get a long-deserved rest? 18 Prisoners sleep undisturbed, never again to wake up to the bark of the guards. 19 The small and the great are equals in that place, and slaves are free from their masters.

20 "Why does God bother giving light to the miserable, why bother keeping bitter people alive, 21 Those who want in the worst way to die, and can't, who can't imagine anything better than death, 22 Who count the day of their death and burial the happiest day of their life? 23 What's the point of life when it doesn't make sense, when God blocks all the roads to meaning? 24 "Instead of bread I get groans for my supper, then leave the table and vomit my anguish. 25 The worst of my fears has come true, what I've dreaded most has happened. 26 My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed. No rest for me, ever - death has invaded life."