Job3

After enduring immense suffering, Job breaks his silence by cursing the day of his birth. He expresses a profound wish that he had never been born or had died immediately, desiring oblivion over his current misery. Job questions why life is granted to those who are bitter in soul and long for the grave, lamenting that his deepest fears have now come upon him.

Listen to this chapter

Job Breaks His Silence

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

And Job answered and said:

Cursing the Day of Birth

Let the day perish wherein I was born, And the night which said, There is a man-child conceived.

Let that day be darkness; Let not God from above seek for it, Neither let the light shine upon it.

Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own; Let a cloud dwell upon it; Let all that maketh black the day terrify it.

As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it: Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not come into the number of the months.

Lo, let that night be barren; Let no joyful voice come therein.

Let them curse it that curse the day, Who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark: Let it look for light, but have none; Neither let it behold the eyelids of the morning:

Because it shut not up the doors of mymother’swomb, Nor hid trouble from mine eyes.

The Desire for Rest in Death

Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me?

Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck?

For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest,

With kings and counsellors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves;

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

Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light.

There the wicked cease from troubling; And there the weary are at rest.

There the prisoners are at ease together; They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

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

The Misery of Continued Existence

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

Who long for death, but it cometh not, And dig for it more than for hid treasures;

Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad, when they can find the grave?

Why is light givento a man whose way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in?

For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my groanings are poured out like water.

For the thing which I fear cometh upon me, And that which I am afraid of cometh unto me.

I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; But trouble cometh.

Study Notes for Job 3

Verse 1

After seven days of silent mourning (2:13), Job finally speaks. This is not a curse against God (as Satan predicted), but a curse against existence itself, marking the beginning of the poetic dialogue.

Verse 3

This verse establishes the hyperbolic nature of Job's grief, wishing for the complete annihilation of the moment of his birth from time and memory, as if it never existed.

Verse 5

The phrase 'shadow of death' (Heb. *tsalmavet*) is intense poetic imagery suggesting deep darkness and the realm of the dead, emphasizing the utter misery Job wishes upon that day.

Verse 8

This complex verse likely refers to professional mourners or practitioners of dark magic who were believed to possess power over certain days or mythological forces (like the primordial dragon, Leviathan), whom Job wishes to employ to destroy his birth day.

Verse 10

Job curses the day because it failed its function—it did not prevent his birth, thereby allowing him to live and experience the profound sorrow he now faces.

Verse 11

This marks a shift in the lament. Job moves from cursing the past event of his birth to longing for an alternative past—immediate death—as a means of escaping his current anguish.

Verse 12

Job asks why he received care (nurtured on the knees and given the breast), arguing that these acts of life-sustaining nurture prevented the desired early death.

Verse 13

The immediate consequence of death is defined as peace, quietness, and rest (sleep), contrasting sharply with his agonizing present suffering.

Verse 14

The grave is presented as the great equalizer where the mighty (kings and counselors, often builders of grand tombs) share the same silent, static state as the common person.

Verse 17

This is a key statement defining Sheol (the realm of the dead) in Job’s view: it is a place of cessation where the dynamics of earthly power, oppression, and fatigue are completely neutralized.

Verse 20

Job shifts to questioning God’s providence, asking why light (life) is granted to those whose suffering is so great that their only hope is the relief of death.

Verse 21

Job describes the desperation of the afflicted who seek death with the eagerness usually reserved for seeking great wealth, highlighting the depth of their physical and spiritual pain.

Verse 23

To be 'hedged in' (a term used earlier by God regarding Job, 1:10) suggests divine confinement. Job feels trapped by God, unable to find a clear path or escape his misery even through death.

Verse 25

Job confesses that his previous prosperity was overshadowed by a deep, existential anxiety about potential loss, and that the very catastrophe he dreaded has now been fully realized, confirming his fears.

Verse 26

This verse concludes Job's initial speech, summarizing his current state: he had no security, rest, or quietness before the calamity, and now he is engulfed by trouble.

Use ← → arrow keys to navigate

Job3

Job Breaks His Silence

Cursing the Day of Birth

The Desire for Rest in Death

The Misery of Continued Existence

Reading Style

Typeface

Font Size 19px

Reading Width 45 chars

Options