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11 “Why (A)did I not die at birth,
    come out from the womb and expire?
12 Why did (B)the 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 counsellors of the earth
    who (C)rebuilt 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 (D)stillborn child,
    as infants who never see the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
    and there the weary are at (E)rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;
    they hear not the voice of (F)the 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 (G)the bitter in soul,
21 who (H)long for death, but it comes not,
    and dig for it more than for (I)hidden treasures,
22 who rejoice exceedingly
    and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose (J)way is hidden,
    whom God has (K)hedged in?
24 For my sighing comes (L)instead of[a] my bread,
    and my (M)groanings are poured out like water.
25 (N)For 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.”

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Footnotes

  1. Job 3:24 Or like; Hebrew before