^3:1 After these things Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.
^3:2 And he spoke:
^3:3 May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said: A man has been conceived.
^3:4 May that day be turned into darkness; may God not seek it from above, and may it not be in remembrance, nor be illumined by light;
^3:5 may darkness and the shadow of death obscure it; may a fog overtake it, and may it be wrapped in bitterness.
^3:6 May a dark whirlwind possess that night; may it not be counted among the days of the year, nor numbered among the months;
^3:7 may that night be solitary and not worthy of praise;
^3:8 let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to awaken Leviathan.
^3:9 May its stars be darkened by its gloom; may it expect light and not see it, nor the rising of the dawning day,
^3:10 because it did not close the doors of the womb that bore me, nor take evils away from my eyes.

50. But after these things Job opened his mouth, etc. As was said above, concerning the passions of the soul there was a twofold opinion among the ancients. For the Stoics said that sadness does not fall upon the wise man; but the Peripatetics said that the wise man indeed becomes sad, but in sadness conducts himself moderately according to reason, and this opinion accords with the truth. For reason cannot take away the condition of nature; and it is natural to the sensitive nature both to be delighted and to rejoice in things agreeable, and to grieve and be saddened over harmful things. Therefore reason cannot take this away, but it moderates it in such a way that, through sadness, reason does not turn aside from its rectitude. This opinion also accords with Sacred Scripture, which places sadness in Christ, in whom there is the fullness of every virtue and wisdom.

51. Thus, therefore, from the adversities narrated above, Job indeed felt sadness; otherwise the virtue of patience would have had no place in him. But because of sadness, reason did not decline from rectitude; rather, it had mastery over sadness. Therefore, to show this, it is said: After these things Job opened his mouth. He says, however, after these things, that is, after the seven days of silence; from this it becomes manifest that the words which follow were uttered according to reason through sadness that was not disordered. For if they had been spoken from disturbance of mind, he would have uttered them earlier, when the force of sadness was more vehement; for any sadness is lessened by length of time and is felt more in the beginning. Hence for this reason he seems to have kept silence so long, lest he be judged to speak with a disturbed mind. This is also shown by the fact that it is said: he opened his mouth; for when someone speaks from the impulse of passion, he himself does not open his mouth, but is driven by passion to speak: for through passion we are not masters of our acts, but only through reason. But by speaking he showed the sadness he was suffering: for it is customary among the wise to speak from reason of the movements of the passions they feel, just as Christ also said, My soul is sorrowful even unto death, and the Apostle says in Romans 8: For the good that I will, I do not do; but the evil that I hate, that I do. So also Boethius, at the beginning of the Consolation, disclosed his sadness in order to show how he might lessen it by reason; so too Job, by speaking, disclosed his sadness

52. Hence there follows: and he cursed his day, which seems to be contrary to that saying of the Apostle in Romans 12:14: Bless, and do not curse. But it must be known that “to curse” is said in many ways: for since to curse is nothing other than to say evil, one is said to curse as often as it happens that one says evil. Now it happens that someone says evil against another first by a speech that causes evil, just as divine speech is the cause of the things that are spoken, and the sentence of a judge condemning someone is the cause of the punishment of the one condemned. And in this way is understood what the Lord said in Genesis 3:17: Cursed is the earth in your work, and in Genesis 10: Cursed be Canaan; let him be the servant of his brothers; and Joshua cursed Achor, who had taken from the anathema. Second, by imprecating or wishing evil, as it is read in 1 Samuel that the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

Third, it happens that someone says evil simply by declaring it, whether in the present, or in the past, or in the future, whether truly or falsely. Therefore the Apostle forbids cursing by that kind of curse by which someone imprecates evil upon another or falsely defames him, but not in that way by which a judge condemns the guilty, or by which someone truthful sets forth in an orderly way the evil of some thing, either by showing what is present, recounting what is past, or foretelling what is future. Thus, therefore, it must be understood that Job cursed his day because he declared it to be evil, not according to its nature by which it was created by God, but according to that custom of Scripture by which time is called good or evil according to the things that are done in time, according to that saying of the Apostle in Ephesians 5:16: redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore Job cursed his day insofar as he recalls that evils happened to him on that very day.

53. How he cursed it is added: And he spoke: May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said: A man has been conceived. Now it must be known that, although being and living are desirable in themselves, nevertheless to be and to live in misery is to be shunned as such, although sometimes being in misery is willingly endured for the sake of some end. Hence that miserable life which is not ordered to some good end is in no way to be chosen, according as the Lord says in Matthew 26:24: It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.

Now the good that is expected from some misery is apprehended by reason alone, while the sensitive power does not perceive it, just as the taste perceives the bitterness of medicine, but reason alone delights in the end of health. Therefore, if someone wished to express the passion of his taste, he would declare the medicine to be evil, although reason would judge it to be good because of the end. Thus, therefore, the misery that blessed Job was sustaining could indeed seem to reason useful in some respect, but the lower part of the soul, which was affected with sadness from it, wholly rejected the adversity; hence the very fact of living under such adversity was hateful to him. But when something is hateful to us, we abominate all the things through which we have come to it; and therefore Job, according to the lower part of the soul, whose passion he now intended to express, hated both his birth and his conception, through which he had come into this life, and consequently the day of his birth and the night of his conception, according to that manner of speaking by which, from the things that are done in time, something good or evil is ascribed to the time. Thus, therefore, because according to the sensitive part Job rejected life under adversity, he wished that he had never been born or conceived,

and this is what he says: May the day perish on which I was born, as if he were saying, ‘Would that I had never been born!’ And the night in which it was said, that is, in which it could truly be said, A man has been conceived, that is, ‘Would that I had never been conceived!’ And he orders this fittingly, because if birth is taken away, conception is not taken away, but the reverse is true. He also fittingly ascribes conception to night and birth to day, because, according to the astrologers, daytime birth is more worthy of praise, since the more principal heavenly body, namely, the sun, is above the earth, while nighttime conception is more frequent. A similar manner of speaking is found in Jeremiah 20:14: Cursed be the day on which I was born; may the day on which my mother bore me not be blessed.

54. Therefore, having set forth the curse of the day of his birth and the night of his conception, he proceeds individually concerning the curse of each, and first concerning the curse of the day of his birth, saying: May that day be turned into darkness. Now it must be considered that, as Jerome says in the prologue, from the words of Job in which he says May the day perish on which I was born up to the place where, before the end of the volume, it is written therefore I myself rebuke myself, they are hexameter verses, running with dactyl and spondee. And so it is clear that from this point this book was written in the manner of a poem; hence throughout this whole book he uses figures and colors such as poets are accustomed to use. Now poets are accustomed, in order to move more vehemently, to bring forward diverse things for the same thought; hence also here, in cursing his day according to the manner we have mentioned, Job brings forward those things by which a day is customarily hateful.

55. Now the dignity of a day is its brightness, for by this it is distinguished from night; therefore he excludes this dignity, saying: May that day be turned into darkness. This statement, indeed, according to the surface of the letter, seems frivolous and vain. For the day of his birth had passed and now was not; and what has passed is unchangeable. How, then, could a day that had passed be turned into darkness? But it must be known that certain things are said in the manner of wishing in order to express the judgment that is held about some matter. Thus, therefore, it is now said, May that day be turned into darkness, as if it were said: the day of my birth ought to have been dark, so that it might correspond to the darkness of the misery that I suffer. For because the sight of light is delightful, according to that saying of Ecclesiastes 11:7: Light is sweet, and it is delightful for the eyes to see the sun, it is customary in the Scriptures for sadness to be signified by darkness, according to that saying of Ecclesiastes 5:16: He eats in darkness and in many cares and in distress and sadness.

56. Now a day is bright in many ways:

first, indeed, from God’s sanctification, who instituted it to be celebrated, as is found in Exodus 20:8: Remember that you are to sanctify the day of the Sabbath. Therefore he removes this brightness from the aforesaid day, saying: may God not seek it from above, as if to say: let God not require men to keep this day as a solemn one. For some days are required by God for solemn celebration because of some signal benefit conferred upon men on that day, such as the Sabbath in the Old Law because of the benefit of creation, and the day of Passover because of the benefit of liberation from Egypt; this is also manifest in the feast days that are celebrated in the New Testament. Therefore by this he wishes to signify that his birth ought not to be counted among the signal benefits of God, since he seems to have been born more for misery than for joy.

Second, a day is bright from the remembrance of men: for men are accustomed to keep as solemn certain days on which great and joyful things have happened to them, just as Herod and Pharaoh celebrated the day of their birth. Therefore he removes this brightness from the aforesaid day, saying: and may it not be in remembrance, namely, of men, because, that is, nothing joyful happened on that day, but rather something sorrowful, as appears from the outcome.

Third, a day is bright from bodily light, and this brightness is taken away in many ways:

first, indeed, by the withdrawal of the rays of the sun that illumine the earth, as is clear when the sun is eclipsed, and with respect to this he says: nor be illumined by light;

second, by the interposition of clouds or of things of this kind that hide the rays of the sun, and with respect to this he says: may darkness obscure it;

third, by the failure of the power of sight; for when someone dies or is deprived of sight, as regards him the brightness of the day is taken away, and with respect to this he says: and the shadow of death.

57. Now he explains the manner of the aforesaid darkening in two ways:

first, indeed, with respect to order, in that he says: may a fog overtake it; for then a day is overtaken by fog when darkness is brought upon a day previously shining, suddenly and unexpectedly, and something similar appears in the life of Job himself;

second, with respect to the kind of darkness, in that he says: and may it be wrapped in bitterness. By this he gives us to understand that everything said about darkening is to be referred to the darkness of sadness; for he seems to observe this custom, that he explains a parabolic expression from something that follows. Therefore, through all these things he intends to say nothing other than that the day of his birth ought not to be judged a day of joy but of mourning, since through his birth he came into a life subject to such great adversity.

58. Therefore, after the curse of the day of his birth, he consequently curses the night of his conception according to a similar manner of speaking, and first he attributes to it that by which night is rendered more horrible. For since night is horrible in itself because of darkness, the more the darkness of night is increased, the more horrible it is rendered; and this happens when some great storm arises in the night. With respect to this he says: May a dark whirlwind possess that night, as if he were saying: it would have been fitting for that night to be possessed by a dark whirlwind, so that it might correspond to my life, which is wrapped in so great a whirlwind of adversity.

59. Then he removes from it those things which seem to pertain to the good of night, and first with respect to the opinion of men. For since men distinguish times according to the things that are done in time, while at night few or no things are done worthy of remembrance, night is not noted in the memories of men by itself, but from the day joined to it. Therefore he removes this good from the aforesaid night, saying: may it not be counted among the days of the year, nor numbered among the months, as if to say: that night is not worthy of remembrance, since nothing signal happened in it, but rather something sorrowful. Now among the nights that are kept in the memories of men, some are not only memorable but also solemn and festive, on which men gather to keep certain feasts, and he removes this, saying: may that night be solitary. Now a gathering of men of this kind on some night takes place for the praise and celebration of that night because of some celebrated deed that is recalled on that night, as is done among the faithful on the night of the Lord’s Resurrection, and therefore he adds: and not worthy of praise; for a night is worthy of praise because of some great deed happening on that night.

60. Therefore from this he intends nothing other than to signify that his conception was not something great nor ordered to good, but rather to the evil of the adversity that he was feeling; hence he adds: Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to awaken Leviathan. This, indeed, according to the letter can be explained in two ways: in one way, insofar as by Leviathan is understood some great fish, as seems to accord with the things that are said about him at the end of this book, when it says: Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook? And according to this, it must be understood that those who fish for great fish of this kind attack them at night in the darkness, and therefore when day begins to appear they curse the day, because by this their work and intention are hindered.

In another way, it can be understood that by Leviathan is signified the ancient dragon, namely, the Devil, according to that saying of Isaiah 27:1: On that day the Lord will visit with his hard, great, and strong sword upon Leviathan, the twisting serpent. Therefore those are ready to awaken Leviathan who strive to carry out the suggestions of the Devil by giving themselves to works of iniquity; they curse the day because, as is said in John 4, Everyone who does evil hates the light, and below in 24:15 it is said: The eye of the adulterer watches for darkness, and afterwards: If the dawn should suddenly appear, he thinks it the shadow of death. According to this, therefore, just as through what he had said, and not worthy of praise, he wishes the aforesaid night to be hateful to the good, so through what he adds, Let those curse it, etc., he wishes it to be hateful to the wicked; for both the good and the wicked abhor adversity.

61. Then he excludes from the aforesaid night the things that seem to pertain to the good of night according to nature. One of these is that night is adorned by the sight of the stars, and he removes this, saying: May its stars be darkened by its gloom. Another is that it is adorned by the hope of day, and he removes this, saying: May it expect light and not see it, as if to say: although it is natural for the light of day to be expected in the night, nevertheless let that night have infinite darkness, which is never ended by the succession of daylight. The darkness of night is indeed wholly excluded by the full light of day, but it is diminished by the twilight of dawn; therefore he imprecates upon the aforesaid night not only that its darkness not be excluded by day, but that it not even be diminished by dawn, whence he says: nor the rising of the dawning day.

62. But because what he had said seemed impossible, namely, that day and dawn should not succeed night, he shows in what sense this was said, adding: because it did not close the doors of the womb that bore me. For the life of a man in his mother’s womb is hidden, whence it is compared to the darkness of night; but when through birth he comes forth into the open, then it has the likeness of bright day. Therefore he said that that night would have neither day nor dawn succeeding it, in order to show that he desired that his conception had never come to birth, nor to childhood, which is understood by dawn, nor to youth, which is designated by the full light of day. He says, however, because it did not close the doors, etc., not because the night itself closes the womb, that is, prevents birth, but because this is done in the night: for from the very conception an impediment can be provided lest what has been conceived come to birth. And because it also seemed irrational that someone should abhor life, since to be and to live are desirable to all, he shows for what reason he said this when he adds: nor take evils away from my eyes, as if to say: I do not abhor life itself for its own sake, but because of the evils that I suffer; for although life is desirable in itself, nevertheless life subject to miseries is not. Here it must be considered that he seems to have explained by this final clause all the things that he had spoken figuratively above, and this must also be observed in his other sayings.