Book of Job, Chapter 3
Job 3 NWT - New World TranslationChapter 3 of Job—New World Translation (NWT)
- ¶ It was after this that Job opened his mouth and began to call down evil upon his day.1
- Job now answered and said:
- ¶ “Let the day perish on which I came to be born,2
Also the night that someone said, ‘An able-bodied man[a] has been conceived!’ - ¶ As for that day, let it become darkness.
Let not God[b] look for it from above,
Nor let daylight beam upon it. - ¶ Let darkness and deep shadow[c] reclaim it.
Let a rain cloud reside over it.
Let the things that darken a day terrorize it.3 - ¶ That night—let gloom take it;4
Let it not feel glad among the days of a year;
Among the number of the lunar months let it not enter. - ¶ Look! That night—let it become sterile;
Let no joyful cry come in it.5 - ¶ Let cursers[d] of the day execrate it,
Those ready to awaken Le·viʹa·than.[e]6 - ¶ Let the stars of its twilight grow dark;
Let it wait for the light and there be none;
And let it not see the beams of dawn. - ¶ For it did not close the doors of my [mother’s] belly,7
And so conceal trouble from my eyes. - ¶ Why from the womb did I not proceed to die?8
[Why did I not] come forth from the belly itself and then expire? - ¶ Why was it that knees confronted me,
And why breasts9 that I should take suck? - ¶ For by now I should have lain down that I might be undisturbed;10
I should have slept then; I should be at rest11 - ¶ With kings and counselors of the earth,12
Those building desolate places[f] for themselves,13 - ¶ Or with princes who have gold,
Those who fill their houses with silver; - ¶ Or, like a hidden miscarriage,14 I should not come to be,
Like children that have seen no light.15 - ¶ There the wicked themselves have ceased from agitation,16
And there those weary in power are at rest.17 - ¶ Together prisoners themselves are at ease;
They actually do not hear the voice of one driving them to work.18 - ¶ Small and great are there the same,19
And the slave is set free from his master.[g] - ¶ Why does he give light to one having trouble,
And life to those bitter of soul?20 - ¶ Why are there those waiting for death, and it is not,21
Although they keep digging for it more than for hidden treasures? - ¶ Those who are rejoicing to gleefulness,[h]
They exult because they find a burial place. - ¶ [Why does he give light] to able-bodied man,[i] whose way has been concealed,22
And whom God[j] hedges in?23 - ¶ For before my food my sighing comes,24
And like waters my roaring cries pour forth;25 - ¶ Because a dreadful thing I have dreaded, and it comes upon me;
And what I have been scared of comes to me.26 - ¶ I have not been carefree, nor have I been undisturbed,
Nor been at rest, and yet agitation comes.”
FOOTNOTES
- ^ “An able-bodied man.” Heb., ghaʹver.
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼElohʹah, sing. of ʼElo·himʹ. ʼElohʹah occurs 41 times in Job and 16 times in other books of M. See De 32:15 ftn, “God.”
- ^ Lit., “death shadow.”
- ^ “Cursers of.” Heb., ʼo·rerehʹ; not the same as in 1:5, 11; 2:5, 9.
- ^ “Leviathan,” MSyVg; LXX, “the great sea monster.”
- ^ “Pyramids,” by a correction.
- ^ “From his master.” Heb., me·ʼadho·navʹ, pl. of ʼa·dhohnʹ, to denote excellence.
- ^ “At a stone heap,” by a slight correction of M, to correspond with “burial place” in the same vs.
- ^ “To able-bodied man.” Heb., legheʹver. See vs 3 ftn.
- ^ See vs 4 ftn.
REFERENCES
- ^ Je 20:14
- ^ Jb 10:18; Je 15:10; 20:15
- ^ Am 8:10
- ^ Jb 10:19
- ^ Is 24:8
- ^ Jb 41:1, 10; Ps 74:14; 104:26
- ^ Ge 29:31; 1Sa 1:5; Jb 10:18
- ^ Je 15:10; 20:17
- ^ Ps 22:9; Lu 23:29
- ^ Ec 9:5, 10
- ^ Jb 30:23; Jn 11:11
- ^ 1Ki 2:10; 2Ch 16:14
- ^ Ge 50:26; Is 22:16; Eze 26:20
- ^ Ps 58:8; Ec 6:3; Ho 9:14
- ^ Ps 49:19
- ^ Ps 9:17
- ^ Ps 146:4; Ec 9:10; Is 57:2
- ^ Ex 5:6
- ^ Jb 30:23; Ps 49:10; Ec 3:20; 8:8; 9:2
- ^ 1Sa 1:10; 2Ki 4:27; Pr 31:6
- ^ Nu 11:15; 1Ki 19:4; Jb 7:15; Jon 4:3; Re 9:6
- ^ Jb 19:8
- ^ Jb 12:14; 19:8; La 3:9; Ho 2:6
- ^ Ps 80:5; 102:9
- ^ Ps 22:1; 38:8; Is 59:11
- ^ Jb 31:23
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