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Job 3:1

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

Challoner: Cursed his dayJob cursed the day of his birth, not by way of wishing evil to any thing of God's creation; but only to express in a stronger manner his sense of human miseries in general, and of his own calamities in particular.

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The verse in its languages

Vulgate (Clementine): Post hæc aperuit Job os suum, et maledixit diei suo,
Septuagint (Swete): Μετὰ τοῦτο ἤνοιξεν Ἰὼβ τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ καὶ κατηράσατο τὴν ἡμέραν αὐτοῦ
Hebrew (WLC): אַחֲרֵי כֵ֗ן פָּתַ֤ח אִיּוֹב֙ אֶת פִּ֔יהוּ וַיְקַלֵּ֖ל אֶת יוֹמֽוֹ

Haydock's commentary

Cursed his day. Job cursed the day of his birth, not by way of wishing evil to any thing of God's creation; but only to express in a stronger manner his sense of human miseries in general, and of his own calamities in particular. (Challoner)

He has these only in view: though, in another light, it is better for a man to be born, and to undergo any misery, that he may obtain eternal rewards. (Haydock)

Some allowances must be made for extreme pain, and for the style of the Eastern (Calmet) poetry. (Haydock)

Jeremias, (xx. 14.) Habacuc, (i. 2.) the psalmist, and even our Saviour in his agony, made use of such strong expressions, Matthew xxvi. 39., and xxvii. 46. Some heretics accuse Job of impatience and blasphemy. The devil, therefore, came off with victory; and the praises given to Job's patience are false. He might offend by some degree of exaggeration. (Calmet)

But even that is by no means clear. Time past could not be recalled, nor receive any injury by the maledictions. (Haydock)

From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.

The Fathers on this verse

St Basil The Letters, Against Eustathius of Sebasteia

1. There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak, is the saying of the Preacher. Time enough has been given to silence, and now the time has come to open my mouth for the publication of the truth concerning matters that are, up to now, unknown. The illustrious Job bore his calamities for a long time in silence, and ever showed his courage by holding out under the most intolerable sufferings, but when he had struggled long enough in silence, and had persisted in covering his anguish in the bottom of his heart, at last he opened his mouth and uttered his well-known words. …