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Job 3:1
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Job Deplores His Birth

1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
2 And Job1 spoke, and said: 
3 “Maya the day perish on which I was born,
And the night in which it was said,
‘A male child is conceived.’ 
4 May that day be darkness;
May God above not seek it,
Nor the light shine upon it.
5 May darkness and athe shadow of death claim it;
May a cloud settle on it;
May the blackness of the day terrify it. 
6 As for that night, may darkness seize it;
May it not1 rejoice among the days of the year,
May it not come into the number of the months. 
7 Oh, may that night be barren!
May no joyful shout come into it!
8 May those curse it who curse the day,
Those awho are ready to arouse Leviathan. 
9 May the stars of its morning be dark;
May it look for light, but have none,
And not see the1 dawning of the day; 
10 Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,
Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.
11 “Whya did I not die at birth?
Why did I not1 perish when I came from the womb? 
12 aWhy did the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? 
13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet,
I would have been asleep;
Then I would have been at rest
14 With kings and counselors of the earth,
Who abuilt ruins for themselves, 
15 Or with princes who had gold,
Who filled their houses with silver;
16 Or why was I not hidden alike a stillborn child,
Like infants who never saw light? 
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
And there the1 weary are at arest. 
18 There the prisoners1 rest together;
aThey do not hear the voice of the oppressor. 
19 The small and great are there,
And the servant is free from his master.
20 “Whya is light given to him who is in misery,
And life to the bbitter of soul, 
21 Who along for death, but it does not come,
And search for it more than bhidden treasures; 
22 Who rejoice exceedingly,
And are glad when they can find the agrave? 
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
aAnd whom God has hedged in? 
24 For my sighing comes before1 I eat,
And my groanings pour out like water. 
25 For the thing I greatly afeared has come upon me,
And what I dreaded has happened to me. 
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, for trouble comes.”
Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
<< Job 2:13   Job 3:2 >>


Job 3:1

After this - Dr. Good renders this, "at length." It means after the long silence of his friends, and after he saw that there was no prospect of relief or of consolation.

Opened Job his mouth - The usual formula in Hebrew to denote thc commencement of a speech; see Matthew 5:2. Schultens contends that it means boldness and vehemency of speech, ̓̔́ parrēsia , or an opening of the mouth for the purpose of accusing, expostulating, or complaining; or to begin to utter some sententious, profound, or sublime maxim; and in support of this he appeals to Psalms 78:2, ard Proverbs 8:6. There is probably, however nothing more intended than to begin to speak. It is in accordance with Oriental views, where an act of speaking is regarded as a grave and important matter, and is entered on with much deliberation. Blackwell (Life of Homer, p. 43) remarks that the Turks, Arabs, Hindoos, and the Orientals in general, have little inclination to society and to general conversation, that they seldom speak, and that their speeches are sententious and brief, unless they are much excited. With such men, to make a speech is a serious matter, as is indicated by the manner in which their discourses are commonly introduced: "I will open my mouth," or they "opened the mouth," implying great deliberation and gravity. This phrase occurs often in Homer, Hesiod, Orpheus, and in Virgil (compare Aeneid vi. 75), as well as in the Bible. See Burder, in Rosenmuller' s Morgenland, "in loc."

And cursed his day - The word rendered "curse" here, qâlal is different from that used in Job 1:11; Job 2:9. It is the proper word to denote "to curse." The Syriac adds, "the day in which he was born." A similar expression occurs in Klopstock' s Messias, Ges. iii.

Wenn nun, aller Kinder beraubt, die verzweifelude Mutter,

Wuthend dem Tag. an dem sie gebahr, und gebohren ward, fluchet .

"When now of all her children robbed, the desperate mother enraged

Curses the day in which she bare, and was borne."




Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Job 3:1:

Job 1:4
Psalms 39:4
Psalms 102:20

 

<< Job 2:13   Job 3:2 >>

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