3 i“Let the day perish on which I was born,
and the night that said,
‘A man is conceived.’
4 Let that day be darkness!
May God above not seek it,
nor light shine upon it.
5 Let gloom and jdeep darkness claim it.
Let clouds dwell upon it;
let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 That night—let thick darkness seize 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 cry enter it.
8 Let those curse it who curse the day,
who are ready to rouse up kLeviathan.
9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
let it hope for light, but have none,
nor see lthe eyelids of the morning,
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor hide trouble from my eyes.
11 “Why mdid I not die at birth,
come out from the womb and expire?
12 Why did nthe knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth
who orebuilt ruins for themselves,
15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden pstillborn child,
as infants who never see the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at qrest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;
they hear not the voice of rthe taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there,
and the slave is free from his master.
20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
and life to sthe bitter in soul,
21 who tlong for death, but it comes not,
and dig for it more than for uhidden treasures,
22 who rejoice exceedingly
and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose vway is hidden,
whom God has whedged in?
24 For my sighing comes xinstead of1 my bread,
and my ygroanings are poured out like water.
25 zFor the thing that I fear comes upon me,
and what I dread befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
Why Do You Hide Yourself?
1 Why, O Lord, do you stand kfar away?
2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
let them nbe caught in the schemes that they have devised.
3 For the wicked oboasts of the desires of his soul,
and the one greedy for gain pcurses1 and qrenounces the Lord.
4 In the pride of his face2 the wicked does not qseek him;3
all his thoughts are, r“There is no God.”
5 His ways prosper at all times;
your judgments are on high, sout of his sight;
as for all his foes, he tpuffs at them.
6 He usays in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
throughout all generations I vshall not meet adversity.”
7 wHis mouth is filled with cursing and xdeceit and yoppression;
zunder his tongue are amischief and biniquity.
8 He sits in ambush in the villages;
in chiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
9 he lurks in ambush like da lion in his ethicket;
he flurks that he may seize the poor;
he seizes the poor when he draws him into his gnet.
10 The helpless are crushed, sink down,
and fall by his might.
11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,
12 jArise, O Lord; O God, klift up your hand;
lforget not the afflicted.
13 Why does the wicked mrenounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not ncall to account”?
14 But you do see, for you onote mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless pcommits himself;
you have been qthe helper of the fatherless.
15 rBreak the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
scall his wickedness to account till you find none.
16 tThe Lord is king forever and ever;
the unations perish from his land.
17 O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will vstrengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
18 to wdo justice to the fatherless and xthe oppressed,
so that yman who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
Lament over Jerusalem
37 k“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that lkills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have mgathered nyour children together oas a hen gathers her brood punder her wings, and qyou were not willing! 38 See, ryour house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, s‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
