The Debate

Job's Outburst

1 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. 2 And Job spake, and said,

3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, And the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.

4 Let that day be darkness; Let not God regard it from above, Neither let the light shine upon it.

5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; Let a cloud dwell upon it; Let the blackness of the day terrify it.

6 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; Let it not be joined unto the days of the year, Let it not come into the number of the months.

7 Lo, let that night be solitary, Let no joyful voice come therein.

8 Let them curse it that curse the day, Who are ready to raise up their mourning.

9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; Let it look for light, but have none; Neither let it see the dawning of the day:

10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

11 Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost When I came out of the belly?

12 Why did the knees prevent me? Or why the breasts that I should suck?

13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, Which built desolate places for themselves;

15 Or with princes that had gold, Who filled their houses with silver:

16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; As infants which never saw light.

17 There the wicked cease from troubling; And there the weary be at rest.

18 There the prisoners rest together; They hear not the voice of the oppressor.

19 The small and great are there; And the servant is free from his master.

20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, And life unto the bitter in soul;

21 Which long for death, but it cometh not; And dig for it more than for hid treasures;

22 Which rejoice exceedingly, And are glad, when they can find the grave?

23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in?

24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my roarings are poured out like the waters.

25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, And that which I was afraid of is come unto me.

26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; Yet trouble came.