Job 3
What Happens in This Chapter
After seven days of silence, Job speaks for the first time since he lost his children, his animals, and his health. He curses the day he was born and asks why he did not die as a baby. He says that in death, kings and slaves and prisoners all rest the same way. He ends by asking why life is given to people who are hurting so much that they long to die.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
1After this, Job began to speak. He cursed the day he was born.
2And Job spake, and said,
2Job said these words:
3Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
3"I wish the day I was born had never happened. I wish that night had never come. That was the night people said, 'A baby boy is on the way.'"
4Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
4Let that day be dark. Let God above pay it no attention. Let no light shine on it.
5Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
5Let darkness and deep shadow take that day back. Let a cloud sit on top of it. Let the blackness of that day cover it up.
6As 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.
6As for that night, let thick darkness carry it away. Let it not be counted with the days of the year. Let it never be part of any month.
7Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.
7Look, let that night be empty. Let no happy voice be heard in it.
8Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
8Let the people who curse days curse that night. They are the ones ready to wake the great sea monster.
The old English says these people are ready "to raise up their mourning." The Hebrew word here is Leviathan, the name of a huge creature of the sea. Job is picturing people powerful enough to stir up that monster.
9Let 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:
9Let its morning stars stay dark. Let that night wait for light and never get any. Let it never see the sun come up.
10Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
10All this is because that night did not keep me from being born. It did not hide this sadness from my eyes.
11Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
11Why did I not die when I was born? Why did I not stop breathing as soon as I came out?
"Give up the ghost" in the old English simply means to die.
12Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
12Why were there knees to hold me? Why were there breasts to feed me?
"Prevent" in 1611 English meant to go before or to meet someone, not to stop them. Job is asking why knees were there to hold him and why he was fed as a newborn.
13For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
13If I had died, I would be lying down quietly now. I would be asleep and resting.
14With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;
14I would be resting with kings and wise helpers of the earth. They built places for themselves that are now empty ruins.
15Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
15Or I would rest with rulers who owned gold. They filled their houses with silver.
16Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
16Or I could have been a baby who died before being born. I would be like babies who never saw daylight.
17There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.
17In that place, bad people stop making trouble. In that place, tired people rest.
18There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
18There the prisoners rest together. They do not hear anyone shouting orders at them.
19The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
19Small people and important people are both there. A servant is free from his master.
20Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
20Why is light given to a person who is in so much pain? Why is life given to someone so sad inside?
21Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
21They want to die, but death does not come. They search for it harder than for hidden treasure.
22Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
22They would be very happy and full of joy if they could find a grave.
23Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
23Why is life given to a man who cannot see the way ahead? God has put a wall all around him.
24For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
24I sigh when food is set in front of me. My cries pour out like water.
25For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
25The thing I was most afraid of has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true.
26I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
26I have no peace. I have no quiet. I have no rest. Trouble has come.
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