Job’s Lament
After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 1And Job said,The prose introduction ends at v 1 and the poetic heart of the book begins with v 2. One of the features of Hebrew poetry is the prevalence of pairs of statements in which the second statement either is parallel in thought to the first or contrasts with it. There is no rhyming or metrical correspondence.
3 “aLet the day on which I was born perish,And the night which announced: ‘There is a man-child conceived.’Jer 20:14-184 “May that day be darkness;Let God above not care about it,Nor light shine on it.5 “Let adarkness and gloom claim it for their own;Let a cloud settle upon it;Let all that blackens the day terrify it .Jer 13:166 “As for that night, let darkness seize it;Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;Let it not be counted in the number of the months.7 “Behold, let that night be barren and empty;Let no joyful voice enter it.8 “Let those curse it 1who curse the day,Who are skilled in arousing up Leviathan.Some ancient sorcerers claimed the ability to curse a day by calling up a terrifying, legendary creature, such as Leviathan, to devour the sun.Job 41:1, 259 “Let the stars of its early dawn be dark;Let the morning wait in vain for the light,Let it not see the eyelids of morning ,10 Because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,Nor hide trouble from my eyes.
11 “aWhy did I not die at birth,Come forth from the womb and expire?Job 10:18, 1912 “Why did the knees receive me?And why the breasts, that I would nurse?13 “For now aI would have lain down and been quiet;I would have slept then, I would have been at rest in death,Job 3:13-19; 7:8-10, 21; 10:21, 22; 14:10-15, 20-22; 16:22; 17:13-16; 19:25-27; 21:13, 23-26; 24:19, 20; 26:5, 6; 34:2214 With akings and bcounselors of the earth,Who built up now desolate cruins for themselves;Job 12:18Job 12:17Job 15:28; Is 58:1215 Or with aprinces bwho had gold,Who filled their houses with silver.Job 12:21Job 27:16, 1716 “Or like a miscarriage which is hidden and put away, I would not exist,Like infants who never saw light.17 “There in death the wicked cease from raging,And there the weary are at arest.Job 17:1618 “There the prisoners rest together;They do not hear the taskmaster’s voice.19 “The small and the great are there,And the servant is free from his master. Jer 20:14-18
20 “Why is the alight given to him who is in misery,And life to the bitter in soul,Jer 20:1821 Who await for death, but it does not come,And dig for death more diligently than for bhidden treasures,Rev 9:6Prov 2:422 Who rejoice exceedingly,And rejoice when they find the grave?23 “Why is the light of day given to a man awhose way is hidden,And whom bGod has hedged in?Job 19:6, 8, 12Job 19:8; Ps 88:8; Lam 3:724 “For amy groaning comes at the sight of my food,And bmy cries of despair are poured out like water.Job 6:7; 33:20Job 30:16; Ps 42:425 “For athe thing which I greatly fear comes upon me,And that of which I am afraid has come upon me.Job 9:28; 30:1526 “I aam not at ease, nor am I quiet,And I am not at rest, and yet trouble still comes upon me.”Job 7:13, 14