Life And Death

     Born To Die

     “After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.  

  And Job spake, and said,  

  Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.  

  Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.  

Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.”

  As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.  

  Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.  

  Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.  

  Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:  

  Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.  

  Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?  

  Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?  

  For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,  

  With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;  

  Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:  

  Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.  

  There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.  

  There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.  

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

  Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;  

  Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;  

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

  Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?  

  For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.  

  For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.  

  I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.”  

Job 3:1-26

     “Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?  

As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:  

So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.  

When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.  

My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.  

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.  

O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.  

The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.  

As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.  

He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.  

Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.  

Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?  

When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;  

Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:  

So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.  

I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.  

What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?  

And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and] try him every moment?  

How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?  

I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?  

And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.  

Job 7:1-21

“Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!  

I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.  

Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,  

Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;  

A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.”  

Job 10:18-22

“Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.  

For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.  

Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.” 

Job  30:22-24

  “Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?”  

Job 38:17