1 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth. 2 Job answered:

3 "Let the day perish in which I was born,

the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’

4 Let that day be darkness.

Don’t let God from above seek for it,

neither let the light shine on it.

5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own.

Let a cloud dwell on it.

Let all that makes the day black terrify it.

6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it.

Let it not rejoice among the days of the year.

Let it not come into the number of the months.

7 Behold, let that night be barren.

Let no joyful voice come therein.

8 Let them curse it who curse the day,

who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark.

Let it look for light, but have none,

neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,

10 because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,

nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

11 "Why didn’t I die from the womb?

Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?

12 Why did the knees receive me?

Or why the breast, that I should nurse?

13 For now I should have lain down and been quiet.

I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

14 with kings and counselors of the earth,

who built up waste places for themselves;

15 or with princes who had gold,

who filled their houses with silver;

16 or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been,

as infants who never saw light.

17 There the wicked cease from troubling.

There the weary are at rest.

18 There the prisoners are at ease together.

They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.

19 The small and the great are there.

The servant is free from his master.

20 "Why is light given to him who is in misery,

life to the bitter in soul,

21 who long for death, but it doesn’t come;

and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

22 who rejoice exceedingly,

and are glad, when they can find the grave?

23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,

whom God has hedged in?

24 For my sighing comes before I eat.

My groanings are poured out like water.

25 For the thing which I fear comes on me,

that which I am afraid of comes to me.

26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest;

but trouble comes."

1 I muri i tenei ka puaki te mangai o Hopa, a ka kanga e ia tona ra.

2 Na ka oho a Hopa, ka mea,

3 Kia ngaro te ra i whanau ai ahau, te po i korerotia ai, He tamaroa kei roto i te kopu.

4 Waiho taua ra mo te pouri; kaua e tirohia iho e te Atua i runga; kaua hoki e whitingia e te marama.

5 Kia poke ia i te pouri, i te atarangi hoki o te mate; kia tauria iho e te kapua; kia whakawehia ano hoki e te whakapouritanga o te ra.

6 Na ko taua po, kia mau pu i te pouri kerekere: kei honoa ki nga ra o te tau; kei huihuia atu ina taua nga marama.

7 Nana, kia mokemoke taua po, kaua te reo koa e uru ki roto.

8 Kia kanga hoki e te hunga kanga i te ra, e te hunga mohio ki te whakaara rewiatana.

9 Kia pouri nga whetu o tona kakarauritanga; kia tatari ki te marama, a kahore noa iho; kei kite hoki i te takiritanga ata.

10 Mona kihai i tutaki i nga tatau o te kopu o toku whaea, kihai i huna i te mauiui kei kitea e ahau.

11 He aha ahau te mate ai i te kopu? He aha te hemo ai i toku putanga mai i te kopu?

12 He aha i rite wawe ai nga turi moku, me nga u hei ngote maku?

13 Me i pena, kua ata takoto ahau, te ai he whakaohooho, moe ana ahau: katahi ahau ka whai okiokinga,

14 I roto i nga kingi, i nga kaiwhakatakoto whakaaro o te whenua i hanga nei i nga wahi mokemoke mo ratou,

15 I roto ranei i nga rangatira whai koura, o ratou nei whare ki tonu i te hiriwa:

16 Kua kahore noa iho ranei, kua pera me te materoto e ngaro nei, me nga kohungahunga kahore nei e kite i te marama.

17 Mutu ake i reira te whakararuraru a te hunga kino; okioki ana i reira te hunga kua mauiui nga uaua.

18 Ata noho ana nga herehere i reira, te rongo i te reo o te kaitukino.

19 Kei reira te iti, te rahi, kahore hoki he rangatira o te pononga.

20 He aha te marama i homai ai ki te tangata kei roto nei i te mate? te ora ki te tangata kua kawa te wairua?

21 E koingo nei ki te mate, heoi kahore noa iho; e keri ana kia taea ia, nui atu i te keri i nga taonga huna.

22 Hari pu ratou, koa ana, ina kitea te urupa.

23 He aha ano te marama i homai ai ki te tangata kua huna nei tona ara, kua oti nei te tutakitaki mai e te Atua?

24 Kiano hoki ahau i kai, kua tae mai taku mapu: ano he wai oku hamama e ringihia ana.

25 No te mea kua tae mai ki ahau te mea whakawehi e wehi nei ahau; ko taku e pawera nei kua pa ki ahau.

26 Kahore oku humarie, kahore oku ata noho, ehara i te mea e okioki ana; na kua puta te raruraru.