Job 3:1–26

 ¹After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

²And Job spoke, and said:

³“May the day perish on which I was born,

And the night in which it was said,

‘A male child is conceived.’

⁴May that day be darkness;

May God above not seek it,

Nor the light shine upon it.

⁵May darkness and the shadow of death claim it;

May a cloud settle on it;

May the blackness of the day terrify it.

⁶As for that night, may darkness seize it;

May it not rejoice among the days of the year,

May it not come into the number of the months.

⁷Oh, may that night be barren!

May no joyful shout come into it!

⁸May those curse it who curse the day,

Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan.

⁹May the stars of its morning be dark;

May it look for light, but have none,

And not see the dawning of the day;

¹⁰Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,

Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.

¹¹“Why did I not die at birth?

Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?

¹²Why did the knees receive me?

Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?

¹³For now I would have lain still and been quiet,

I would have been asleep;

Then I would have been at rest

¹⁴With kings and counselors of the earth,

Who built ruins for themselves,

¹⁵Or with princes who had gold,

Who filled their houses with silver;

¹⁶Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child,

Like infants who never saw light?

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling,

And there the weary are at rest.

¹⁸There the prisoners rest together;

They do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

¹⁹The small and great are there,

And the servant is free from his master.

²⁰“Why is light given to him who is in misery,

And life to the bitter of soul,

²¹Who long for death, but it does not come,

And search for it more than hidden treasures;

²²Who rejoice exceedingly,

And are glad when they can find the grave?

²³Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,

And whom God has hedged in?

²⁴For my sighing comes before I eat,

And my groanings pour out like water.

²⁵For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me,

And what I dreaded has happened to me.

²⁶I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;

I have no rest, for trouble comes.”

Preamble: Job chapter three has to be one of the most despairing chapters in the entire Bible. I think only the Book of Lamentations is on par with it. After a week of long silence and contemplation, Job sitting amongst his friends now speaks, however the words here are not like his previous words which he spoke so bravely after initially experiencing all his loses, rather they the words of a man consumed with despair.

Commentary

Vs. 1-10 ¹After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

²And Job spoke, and said:

³“May the day perish on which I was born,

And the night in which it was said,

‘A male child is conceived.’

⁴May that day be darkness;

May God above not seek it,

Nor the light shine upon it.

⁵May darkness and the shadow of death claim it;

May a cloud settle on it;

May the blackness of the day terrify it.

⁶As for that night, may darkness seize it;

May it not rejoice among the days of the year,

May it not come into the number of the months.

⁷Oh, may that night be barren!

May no joyful shout come into it!

⁸May those curse it who curse the day,

Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan.

⁹May the stars of its morning be dark;

May it look for light, but have none,

And not see the dawning of the day;

¹⁰Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,

Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.

Job’s week-long silence is now broken; but not by his friends trying to speak to him; but by Job himself who has seemingly lost all hope as he curses the day of his birth, saying may that day be cursed, and let it be clothed with darkness, and let no joy come from the day it was said a male child is conceived! Job goes on to say to not let God Himself seek it, nor any light shine upon it, but rather let darkness and the shadow of death claim it, and let a cloud settle on it, and the blackness of the day terrify it. Job then sees even his preincarnate state where there was not light, no life, a better state to be in than having all of ones hopes suddenly destroyed and ruined before one’s eyes. But that is what Satan does, he steal’s, kills, and destroys. And thus, through Job we also get to see his true nature revealed. Now darkness here in verses 4-5 encompasses not only darkness but also entails misery. And so along with the very powerful metaphors he uses throughout this chapter Job will use this word darkness as the spearhead for his cursing his own coming into existence, which he now only sees as darkness, for to be brought forth into life only to live and see this day, it would have been better than to never have lived at all is Job’s only thought now. But even that statement does not due justice to depth of Job’s grief and despair being expressed in this chapter. 

Preamble:

In this section Job moves beyond cursing the day of his birth and existence to now asking the question, “Why”, the unanswerable question. Nonetheless by asking these kinds of questions, in fully expressing one’s own grief through them, Job is opening the door to his own healing, even though there will be much grief and despair interposed in his statements as he expresses his immense grief through the question, “Why”.

Vs. 11-12 ¹¹“Why did I not die at birth?

Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?

¹²Why did the knees receive me?

Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?

¹³For now I would have lain still and been quiet,

I would have been asleep;

Then I would have been at rest

¹⁴With kings and counselors of the earth,

Who built ruins for themselves,

¹⁵Or with princes who had gold,

Who filled their houses with silver;

“Why did I not die at birth, why did I not perish in the womb.” Job’s misery is such that he now thinks that having not lived at all would’ve been far better than to have ever come to this day in his life. But that is what tragedy often does to us it blinds one to all the good that was, and will be again. And so even though Job does not see it, no moment in our lives (no matter how tragic) is to be the end of our lives. But he will get there, and so will you. Job then goes onto express that it would have been better for him to have been left to die as infant then to have lived to see this day, for he now thinks that his life has all been for naught, for in a moment he lost it all, like the kings and counselors of the earth who only build ruins for themselves as their legacies and empires all end with them, or like the princes who acquire gold and fill their houses with silver but can keep none of it at their lives end. 

Vs. 16-19 ¹⁶Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child,

Like infants who never saw light?

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling,

And there the weary are at rest.

¹⁸There the prisoners rest together;

They do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

¹⁹The small and great are there,

And the servant is free from his master.

Job’s questions of “why” continue again with a slant towards his wanting to find relief from his miseries via the grave. And so, he asks why he ever even came to life? For it again Job now feels that it would’ve been better to die as still born child then to have lived only to see and experience all of this, for in death Job reasons that the wicked cease from troubling others there, that one can find relief there, however that is not true, death is not a means to find relief from anything, for it does not promise peace for anyone, and certainly not for those who die in their sins and transgressions, for Sheol (the grave, the place of the dead), offers no rest to those who do so. Nonetheless Job in his deep despair now sees death as the place where even the prisoners find rest, that they no longer hear the voices of their oppressors and tormentors bearing rule over them, for in death Job reasons that both small and great are there, and that the servant is free from their master there. Again, Job’s outlook on death as a sort of “liberation” from one’s miseries and grief is an outlook that is only being driven by his own personal loses and suffering, it is not sound and should not be embraced by anyone. Job then stands as a lesson for all who advocate for assisted suicide, because suicide guarantees no one hope of relief from ones sufferings, and as we will see with Job, the seasons of our lives can change even with death near and at the doors.

Vs. 20-26 ²⁰“Why is light given to him who is in misery,

And life to the bitter of soul,

²¹Who long for death, but it does not come,

And search for it more than hidden treasures;

²²Who rejoice exceedingly,

And are glad when they can find the grave?

²³Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,

And whom God has hedged in?

²⁴For my sighing comes before I eat,

And my groanings pour out like water.

²⁵For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me,

And what I dreaded has happened to me.

²⁶I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;

I have no rest, for trouble comes.”

Job’s contemplative questions continue, by his now asking why is light is given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter of soul? Basically, why do people live on when death is greatly desired and gladness for them seems only to be found in the grave Job asks now (vs. 20-22). Indeed, he asks why does God give life and light to those whose way is hidden; who cannot see any way out; whom Job goes on to say that God has hedged in (vs. 23). Now stop and imagine for a moment if God had taken Job’s life at this time as he so desires of Him here, just think about all the good that Job would’ve missed out on, and all we would’ve never been privileged to see and learn and understand of God’s dealings with man. Know for certain then that God giving light and life to any of us, even while in our deepest misery and pain is always so that we may find Him and be reconciled to Him, and others while we can.

In verse 24 Job decrees his great sadness and sorrow which seemingly will not end, but his depression will end, if he sees it to its end. While verse twenty five reveals the heart of the matter, for the thing which Job dreaded most has now come upon him. Now this is up for speculation, but since he nobly endured the losses of all his wealth and possessions, it cannot be those things, same with the loss of all of his children, which obviously devasted him, but it cannot be that great tragedy either, for Job having torn his robe and shaved his head then fell to the ground after those things and worshiped and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

And naked shall I return there.

The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;

Blessed be the name of the Lord.” ^{Vs. 21}

Therefore, the thing that Job dreaded most was the loss of his own health, and in this he is now going through a very painful and ugly affliction with no end or remedy in sight, this then was the breaking point of Job’s person. Now Job’s finial statement after his very dark compilation of all his miseries and desires for death, and before his friends begin to speak to him is: “I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes.” ^{Vs. 26} Job then now realizes that in expressing his grieve so freely and darkly that his friend’s will now not look kindly upon him for doing so, all which will begin in chapter four.

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.