Bilingual reading

After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.

Job answered:

“Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’

Let that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it.

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.

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.

Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.

Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

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,

because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

“Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?

Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse?

For now I should have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;

or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;

or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.

There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.

There the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.

The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.

“Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,

who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.

For the thing which I fear comes on me, that which I am afraid of comes to me.

I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest; but trouble comes.”

بَعدَ ذٰلك فَتَحَ أَيُّوبُ فَمَه ولَعَنَ يَومَه

وتَكَلَّمَ أَيُّوبُ وقال

«لا كانَ نَهارٌ وُلِدتُ فيه ولا لَيلٌ قال: قد حُبِلَ بِرَجُل!

لِيَكُنْ ذٰلك النَّهارُ ظَلامًا ولا رَعاهُ اللهُ مِن فَوقُ ولا أَشرَقَ علَيه نور!

لِتُطالِبْ بِه الظُّلُماتُ وظِلالُ المَوت ولْيَستَقِرَّ علَيه غَمام ولْتُرَوِّعْه كَواسفُ النَّهار!

وذٰلك اللَّيلُ لِيَشْمَلْه الظَّلام ولا يُضَمَّ إِلى أَيَّامِ السَّنَة ولا يَدخُلْ في عَدَدِ الشُّهور!

لِيَكُنْ ذٰلك اللَّيلُ عاقِرًا ولا يُسمَعْ فيه هُتاف!

لِيَشْتِمْه لاعِنو اليَوم المُستَعِدُّونَ لإِيقاظِ لَوِياثان!

لِتُظلِمْ كَواكِبُ شَفَقِه ولْيَتَرَقَّبِ النُّورَ فلا يَكون ولا يَرَ أَجْفانَ الفَجْر!

لِأَنَّه لم يُغلِقْ عَلَيَّ أَبوابَ البَطْن ولَم يَستُرِ الشَّقاءَ عن عَينَيَّ

لِمَ لَم أَمُتْ مِنَ الرَّحِم ولم تَفِضْ روحي عِندَ خُروجي مِنَ البَطْن؟

لِماذا صادَفتُ رُكبَتَينِ تَقبَلانِني وثَدْيَينِ يُرضِعانني؟

إِذَن لَكُنتُ الآنَ أَضَّجِعُ فأَسكُن ولَكُنتُ أَنامُ فأَستَرِيح

معَ مُلوكِ الأَرضِ ومُشيريها الَّذينَ ٱبتَنَوا لِأَنفُسِهم خَرائِب

أو مَعَ أُمَراءَ لَهم ذَهَب وقَد مَلَأُوا بُيوتَهم فِضَّة

أَو كسِقطٍ مَغْمورٍ فلَم أَحْيَ ومِثلَ أَجِنَّةٍ لم يَرَوا النُّور

هُناكَ يَكُفُّ الأَشْرارُ عنِ الِٱضطِراب وهُناكَ يَستَريحُ مُنهَكو القُوى

هُناكَ الأَسْرى جَميعًا في قَرار ولا يَسمَعونَ صِياحَ المُسَخِّر

هُناكَ الصَّغيرُ والكَبير والعَبدُ مُعتَقًا مِن مَولاه

لِمَ يُعْطى لِلشَّقِيِّ نور وحَياةٌ لِذَوي النُّفوسِ المُرَّة

المُتَوَقِّعينَ لِلمَوتِ فلا يَكون الباحِثينَ عنه أَكثَرَ مِنهم مِنَ الدَّفائِن

الَّذينَ يَفرَحونَ حتَّى الِٱبتهاج ويُسَرُّونَ إِذا وَجَدوا قَبرًا؟

لِمَ يُعْطى رَجُلٌ حُجِبَ طَريقُه وسَيَّجَ اللهُ مِن حَولِه؟

فإِنَّ التَّنَهُّدَ طَعامٌ لي وزَئيري يَنصَبُّ كالمِياه

لِأَنَّ ما كُنتُ أَخْشاه قد أَتاني وما فَزِعتُ مِنه قد جاءَ إِلَيَّ

فلا طُمَأنينَةَ لي ولا قَرارَ ولا راحة وقد داهَمَني الِٱضطِراب»