Jeremiah 20:14-18

20:14 Cursed be the day I was born!

May that day not be blessed when my mother gave birth to me.

20:15 Cursed be the man

who made my father very glad

when he brought him the news

that a baby boy had been born to him!

20:16 May that man be like the cities

that the Lord destroyed without showing any mercy.

May he hear a cry of distress in the morning

and a battle cry at noon.

20:17 For he did not kill me before I came from the womb,

making my pregnant mother’s womb my grave forever.

20:18 Why did I ever come forth from my mother’s womb?

All I experience is trouble and grief,

and I spend my days in shame.

Job 3:1-26

II. Job’s Dialogue With His Friends
(3:1-27:33)

Job Regrets His Birth

3:1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born. 3:2 Job spoke up and said:

3:3 “Let the day on which I was born perish,

and the night that said,

‘A man has been conceived!’

3:4 That day – let it be darkness;

let not God on high regard it,

nor let light shine on it!

3:5 Let darkness and the deepest

shadow claim it;

let a cloud settle on it;

let whatever blackens the day terrify it!

3:6 That night – let darkness seize it;

let it not be included among the days of the year;

let it not enter among the number of the months!

3:7 Indeed, let that night be barren;

let no shout of joy penetrate it!

3:8 Let those who curse the day curse it –

those who are prepared to rouse Leviathan.

3:9 Let its morning stars be darkened;

let it wait for daylight but find none,

nor let it see the first rays of dawn,

3:10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb on me,

nor did it hide trouble from my eyes!

Job Wishes He Had Died at Birth

3:11 “Why did I not die at birth,

and why did I not expire

as I came out of the womb?

3:12 Why did the knees welcome me,

and why were there two breasts

that I might nurse at them?

3:13 For now I would be lying down

and would be quiet,

I would be asleep and then at peace

3:14 with kings and counselors of the earth

who built for themselves places now desolate,

3:15 or with princes who possessed gold,

who filled their palaces with silver.

3:16 Or why was I not buried

like a stillborn infant,

like infants who have never seen the light?

3:17 There the wicked cease from turmoil,

and there the weary are at rest.

3:18 There the prisoners relax together;

they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

3:19 Small and great are there,

and the slave is free from his master.

Longing for Death

3:20 “Why does God give light to one who is in misery,

and life to those whose soul is bitter,

3:21 to those who wait for death that does not come,

and search for it

more than for hidden treasures,

3:22 who rejoice even to jubilation,

and are exultant when they find the grave?

3:23 Why is light given to a man

whose way is hidden,

and whom God has hedged in?

3:24 For my sighing comes in place of my food,

and my groanings flow forth like water.

3:25 For the very thing I dreaded has happened to me,

and what I feared has come upon me.

3:26 I have no ease, I have no quietness;

I cannot rest; turmoil has come upon me.”