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Commentary on Job 3 verses 1–10
Long was Job's heart hot within him; and, while he was musing, the fire burned, and the more for being stifled and suppressed. At length he spoke with his tongue, but not such a good word as David spoke after a long pause: Lord, make me to know my end, Psa 39:3, Psa 39:4. Seven days the prophet Ezekiel sat down astonished with the captives, and then (probably on the sabbath day) the word of the Lord came to him, Eze 3:15, Eze 3:16. So long Job and his friends sat thinking, but said nothing; they were afraid of speaking what they thought, lest they should grieve him, and he durst not give vent to his thoughts, lest he should offend them. They came to comfort him, but, finding his afflictions very extraordinary, they began to think comfort did not belong to him, suspecting him to be a hypocrite, and therefore they said nothing. But losers think they may have leave to speak, and therefore Job first gives vent to his thoughts. Unless they had been better, it would however have been well if he had kept them to himself. In short, he cursed his day, the day of his birth, wished he had never been born, could not think or speak of his own birth without regret and vexation. Whereas men usually observe the annual return of their birthday with rejoicing, he looked upon it as the unhappiest day of the year, because the unhappiest of his life, being the inlet into all his woe. Now,
I. This was bad enough. The extremity of his trouble and the discomposure of his spirits may excuse it in part, but he can by no means be justified in it. Now he has forgotten the good he was born to, the lean kine have eaten up the fat ones, and he is filled with thoughts of the evil only, and wishes he had never been born. The prophet Jeremiah himself expressed his painful sense of his calamities in language not much unlike this: Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me! Jer 15:10. Cursed be the day wherein I was born, Jer 20:14, etc. We may suppose that Job in his prosperity had many a time blessed God for the day of his birth, and reckoned it a happy day; yet now he brands it with all possible marks of infamy. When we consider the iniquity in which we were conceived and born we have reason enough to reflect with sorrow and shame upon the day of our birth, and to say that the day of our death, by which we are freed from sin (Rom 6:7), is far better. Ecc 7:1. But to curse the day of our birth because then we entered upon the calamitous scene of life is to quarrel with the God of nature, to despise the dignity of our being, and to indulge a passion which our own calm and sober thoughts will make us ashamed of. Certainly there is no condition of life a man can be in in this world but he may in it (if it be not his own fault) so honour God, and work out his own salvation, and make sure a happiness for himself in a better world, that he will have no reason at all to wish he had never been born, but a great deal of reason to say that he had his being to good purpose. Yet it must be owned, if there were not another life after this, and divine consolations to support us in the prospect of it, so many are the sorrows and troubles of this that we might sometimes be tempted to say that we were made in vain (Psa 89:47), and to wish we had never been. There are those in hell who with good reason wish they had never been born, as Judas, Mat 26:24. But, on this side hell, there can be no reason for so vain and ungrateful a wish. It was Job's folly and weakness to curse his day. We must say of it, This was his infirmity; but good men have sometimes failed in the exercise of those graces which they have been most eminent for, that we may understand that when they are said to be perfect it is meant that they were upright, not that they were sinless. Lastly, Let us observe it, to the honour of the spiritual life above the natural, that though many have cursed the day of their first birth, never any cursed the day of their new-birth, nor wished they never had had grace, and the Spirit of grace, given them. Those are the most excellent gifts, above life and being itself, and which will never be a burden.
II. Yet it was not so bad as Satan promised himself. Job cursed his day, but he did not curse his God - was weary of his life, and would gladly have parted with that, but not weary of his religion; he resolutely cleaves to that, and will never let it go. The dispute between God and Satan concerning Job was not whether Job had his infirmities, and whether he was subject to like passions as we are (that was granted), but whether he was a hypocrite, who secretly hated God, and if he were provoked, would show his hatred; and, upon trial, it proved that he was no such man. Nay, all this may consist with his being a pattern of patience; for, though he did thus speak unadvisedly with his lips, yet both before and after he expressed great submission and resignation to the holy will of God and repented of his impatience; he condemned himself for it, and therefore God did not condemn him, nor must we, but watch the more carefully over ourselves, lest we sin after the similitude of this transgression.
1.The particular expressions which Job used in cursing his day are full of poetical fancy, flame, and rapture, and create as much difficulty to the critics as the thing itself does to the divines: we need not be particular in our observations upon them. When he would express his passionate wish that he had never been, he falls foul upon the day, and wishes,
(1.)That earth might forget it: Let it perish (Job 3:3); let it not be joined to the days of the year, Job 3:6. "Let it be not only not inserted in the calendar in red letters, as the day of the king's nativity useth to be" (and Job was a king, Job 29:25), "but let it be erased and blotted out, and buried in oblivion. Let not the world know that ever such a man as I was born into it, and lived in it, who am made such a spectacle of misery."
(2.)That Heaven might frown upon it: Let not God regard it from above, Job 3:4. "Every thing is indeed as it is with God; that day is honourable on which he puts honour, and which he distinguishes and crowns with his favour and blessing, as he did the seventh day of the week; but let my birthday never be so honoured; let it be nigro carbone notandus - marked as with a black coal for an evil day by him that determines the times before appointed. The father and fountain of light appointed the greater light to rule the day and the less lights to rule the night; but let that want the benefit of both." [1.] Let that day be darkness (Job 3:4); and, if the light of the day be darkness, how great is that darkness! how terrible! because then we look for light. Let the gloominess of the day represent Job's condition, whose sun went down at noon. [2.] As for that night too, let it want the benefit of moon and stars, and let darkness seize upon it, thick darkness, darkness that may be felt, which will not befriend the repose of the night by its silence, but rather disturb it with its terrors.
(3.)That all joy might forsake it: "Let it be a melancholy night, solitary, and not a merry night of music and dancing. Let no joyful voice come therein (Job 3:7); let it be a long night, and not see the eye-lids of the morning (Job 3:9), which bring joy with them."
(4.)That all curses might follow it (Job 3:8): "Let none ever desire to see it, or bid it welcome when it comes, but, on the contrary, let those curse it that curse the day. Whatever day any are tempted to curse, let them at the same time bestow one curse upon my birthday, particularly those that make it their trade to raise up mourning at funerals with their ditties of lamentation. Let those that curse the day of the death of others in the same breath curse the day of my birth." Or those who are so fierce and daring as to be ready to raise up the Leviathan (for that is the word here), who, being about to strike the whale or crocodile, curse it with the bitterest curse they can invent, hoping by their incantations to weaken it, and so to make themselves master of it. Probably some such custom might there be used, to which our divine poet alludes. "Let it be as odious as the day wherein men bewail the greatest misfortune, or the time wherein they see the most dreadful apparition;" so bishop Patrick, I suppose taking the Leviathan here to signify the devil, as others do, who understand it of the curses used by conjurors and magicians in raising the devil, or when they have raised a devil that they cannot lay.
2.But what is the ground of Job's quarrel with the day and night of his birth? It is because it shut not up the doors of his mother's womb, Job 3:10. See the folly and madness of a passionate discontent, and how absurdly and extravagantly it talks when the reins are laid on the neck of it. Is this Job, who was so much admired for his wisdom that unto him men gave ear, and kept silence at his counsel, and after his words they spoke not again? Job 29:21, Job 29:11. Surely his wisdom failed him, (1.) When he took so much pains to express his desire that he had never been born, which, at the best was a vain wish, for it is impossible to make that which has been not to have been. (2.) When he was so liberal of his curses upon a day and a night that could not be hurt, or made any the worse for his curses. (3.) When he wished a thing so very barbarous to his own mother as that she had not brought him forth when her full time had come, which must inevitably have been her death, and a miserable death. (4.) When he despised the goodness of God to him in giving him a being (such a being, so noble and excellent a life, such a life, so far above that of any other creature in this lower world), and undervalued the gift, as not worth the acceptance, only because transit cum onere - it was clogged with a proviso of trouble, which now at length came upon him, after many years' enjoyment of its pleasures. What a foolish thing it was to wish that his eyes had never seen the light, that so they might not have seen sorrow, which yet he might hope to see through, and beyond which he might see joy! Did Job believe and hope that he should in his flesh see God at the latter day (Job 19:26), and yet would he wish he had never had a being capable of such a bliss, only because, for the present, he had sorrow in the flesh? God by his grace arm us against this foolish and hurtful lust of impatience.
“Let the day perish in which I was born,” not the day in which I was formed but that “in which I was born.” … God, in fact, forms me into goodness, but Eve, who transgressed, conceives me into sadness. And David himself did not ignore that, but after learning it from the Spirit, he introduces the concept into a prophetic psalm with these terms: “For, behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me.” How? To be sure, Eve began to conceive and give birth after the fall in paradise and after the transgression due to the miserable nourishment of the tree.
24. It seems as it were like day, when the good fortune of this world smiles upon us, but it is a day that ends in night, for temporal prosperity often leads to the darkness of affliction. This day of good fortune the Prophet had condemned, when he said, Neither have I desired man's day [‘diem hominis’ Vulg.], Thou knowest it. [Jer. 17, 16] And this night our Lord declared He was to suffer at the final close of His Incarnation, when he declared by the Psalmist as if in the past, My reins also instructed me in the night season. [Ps. 16, 7] But by ‘the day’ may be understood the pleasures of sin, and by ‘the night’ the inward blindness, whereby man suffers himself to be brought down to the ground in the commission of sin. And therefore he wishes the day may perish, that all the flattering arts which are seen in sin, by the strong hand of justice interposing, may be brought to nought. He wishes also that the ‘night may perish,’ that what the blinded mind executes even in yielding consent, she may put away by the castigation of penance.
25. But we must enquire why man is said to be born in ‘the day’ and conceived in ‘the night?’ Holy Scripture uses the title ‘man’ in three ways, viz, sometimes in respect of nature, sometimes of sin, sometimes of frailness. Now man is so called in respect of nature, as where it is written, Let Us make man after Our image and likeness. [Gen. 1, 26] He is called man in respect of sin, as where it is written, I have said, Ye are all gods, and all of you are children of the Most High: but ye shall die like men. [Ps. 82, 6. 7.] As though he had expressed it plainly, ‘ye shall perish like transgressors.’ And hence Paul saith, For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? [1 Cor. 3, 3] As though he had said, ‘Ye that carry about minds at variance, do ye not still sin, in the spirit of faulty human nature?' He is called man, in relation to his weakness, as where it is written, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man. [Jer. 17, 5] As if he had said in plain words, ‘in weakness.’ Thus man is born in the day, but he is conceived in the night, in that he is never caught away by the delightfulness of sin, until he is first made weak by the voluntary darkness of his mind. For he first becomes blind in the understanding, and then he enslaves himself to damnable delight. Let it be said then, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night wherein it was said, There is a man child conceived: i.e. 'Let the delight perish, which has hurried man into sin, and the unguarded frailness of his mind, whereby he was blinded even to the very darkness of consenting to evil. For while man does not heedfully mark the allurements of pleasure, he is even carried headlong into the night of the foulest practices. We must watch then with minds alive, that when sin begins to caress, the mind may perceive to what ruin she is being dragged,
4. For what is to be understood by ‘the day of our birth,’ save the whole period of our mortal state? So long as this keeps us fast in the corruptions of this our mutable state of being, the unchangeableness of eternity does not appear to us. He, then, who already beholds the day of eternity, endures with difficulty the day of his mortal being. And observe, he saith not, ‘Let the day perish wherein I was created,’ but, let the day perish wherein I was born. For man was created in a day of righteousness, but now he is born in a time of guilt; for Adam was created, but Cain was the first man that was born. What then is it to curse the day of his birth, but to say plainly, ‘May the day of change perish, and the light of eternity burst forth?’
5. But inasmuch as we are used to bid perish in two ways, (for it is in one way that we bid perish, when we desire to any thing that it should no longer be, and in another way that we bid it perish, when we desire that it should be ill therewith,) the words that are added concerning this day, Let a cloud dwell upon it: let it be enveloped in bitterness [Vulg.]; clearly show, that he wishes not this day to perish in such sort as not to be, but so that it may go ill with it; for that can never be ‘enveloped in bitterness,’ which is so wholly destroyed as not to be at all. Now this period of our mutable condition is not one day to perish, (i.e. to pass away,) in such a way, as to be in an evil plight, but so as to cease to be altogether, as the Angel bears witness in Holy Writ, saying, By Him that liveth for ever and ever, that there should be time no longer. [Rev. 10, 6] For though the Prophet hath it, Their time shall endure for ever [Ps. 81, 15], yet because time comes to an end with every moment, he designated their coming to an end by the name of ‘time,’ showing that without every way ending they come to an end, that are severed from the joys of the inward Vision. Therefore because this period of our mortal condition does not so perish as to be in evil plight, but so as not to be at all, we must enquire what it means that he desires it may perish, not so that it may not be, but that it may be in ill condition. Now a human soul, or an Angelic spirit, is in such sort immortal, that it is capable of dying, in such sort mortal, that it can never die. For of living happily, it is deprived whether by sin or by punishment; but its essential living it never loses, either by sin or punishment: it ceases from a mode of living, but it is not even by dying susceptible of an end to every mode of being. So that I might say in a word, that it is both immortally mortal, and mortally immortal. Whereas then he wishes that the day may perish, and soon after it is said that it is ‘to be enveloped in bitterness,’ whom should we think the holy man would express by the name of ‘day,’ except the Apostate Spirit, who in dying subsists in the life of essential being? Whom destruction does not withdraw from life, in that in the midst of pains eternal an immortal death kills, while it preserves, him whose perishing, fallen as he is already from the glory of his state of bliss, is still longed for no otherwise than that being held back by the punishments, which he deserves, he may lose even the liberty of tempting.
6. Yea, he presents himself as the day, in that he allures by prosperity; and his end is in the blackness of night, for that he leads to adversity; thus he displayed day when he said, In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as Gods; [Gen. 3, 5] but he brought on night, when he led to the blackness of mortality; the day, therefore, is the proffered promise of better things, but the night is the very manifested experience of evils. The old enemy is the day, as by nature created good, but he is the night, as by his own deserts sunk down into darkness. He is day, when by promising good things he disguises himself as an Angel of light to the eyes of men, as Paul witnesses, saying, For Satan himself is transformed as an angel of light; [2 Cor. 11, 14] but he is night, when he obscures the minds of those that consent to him with the darkness of error. Well then may the holy man, who in his own sorrows bewailed the case of the whole human race, and who viewed nothing in any wise special to himself in his own special affliction, well may he recal to mind the original cause of sin, and soften the pain of the infliction by considering its justice. Let him look at man, and see whence and whither he has fallen, and exclaim, Let the day perish wherein he was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. As if he said in plain words, ‘Let the hope perish, which the apostate Angel held forth, who, disguising himself as day, shone forth with the promise of a divine nature, but yet again showing himself as night, brought a cloud over the light of our immortal nature. Let our old enemy perish, who displayed the light of promises, and bestowed the darkness of sin; who as it were presented himself as day by his flattery, but led us to a night of utter darkness by sealing our hearts with blindness.’
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SUMMARY
Job 3:3 marks a pivotal moment in the biblical narrative, transitioning from the prose prologue of Job's initial unwavering faith to the raw, poetic outpouring of his profound anguish. After enduring catastrophic losses and severe physical affliction, and following seven days of silent suffering in the presence of his friends, Job breaks his silence not with a prayer of acceptance, but with a deeply personal and radical curse upon the very day of his birth and the night of his conception. This verse encapsulates the unfathomable depths of his despair, expressing a fervent desire for non-existence as the ultimate escape from his unbearable physical and emotional pain, thereby setting the stage for the intense theological dialogues that comprise the bulk of the book.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Job 3:3 is replete with literary devices that amplify the intensity of Job's profound despair. The most prominent is Hyperbole, as Job expresses an exaggerated and impossible wish for the day of his birth to be annihilated. This extreme language vividly conveys the overwhelming intensity of his suffering, suggesting that his pain is so great that he desires to undo his very existence rather than continue to endure it. Personification is also present in the phrase "Let the day perish," as the day itself is given agency, capable of being destroyed. This imbues the moment of his birth with a malevolent quality, as if it were an entity responsible for his suffering. There is a strong sense of Irony here, as birth, typically a universally joyous and celebrated occasion, is cursed, turning a moment of profound blessing into one of deep regret and longing for non-existence. This tragic reversal powerfully highlights the catastrophic nature of Job's circumstances. Finally, the entire verse functions as a powerful example of Lament, a well-established biblical literary genre characterized by expressions of grief, complaint, and questioning directed towards God or fate, demonstrating the biblical allowance for raw, unfiltered human emotion in the face of overwhelming pain.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 3:3 stands as a stark and unvarnished reminder of the reality of profound human suffering and the biblical permission for honest, even agonizing, lament before God. It profoundly challenges simplistic theological frameworks that equate suffering solely with sin or divine punishment, pushing the reader to grapple with the mystery of pain in the lives of the righteous. Theologically, it affirms that God is indeed big enough to handle our deepest despair, our most challenging questions, and our most raw expressions of grief. Job's curse is not an act of rebellion against God's sovereignty in the sense of abandoning faith, but rather an intense wrestling within it, a desperate cry from a soul pushed to its absolute limits. This lament, while extreme and unsettling, is ultimately an act of continued engagement with the divine, refusing to suffer in silence and instead bringing his brokenness directly before the heavens. It teaches us that authentic faith can coexist with profound doubt, anger, sorrow, and even the wish for non-existence, and that true spiritual health often involves acknowledging and articulating our pain rather than suppressing or denying it.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job 3:3 offers profound and often uncomfortable insights for navigating our own experiences of suffering and for ministering effectively to others in pain. It powerfully validates the raw, often unsettling, reality of human anguish, assuring us that it is permissible to express profound despair, even to the point of wishing for non-existence, without it necessarily being a sign of faithlessness or rebellion. This verse reminds us that the journey of faith is not always linear, stoic, or devoid of struggle; it frequently involves wrestling with God, questioning His ways, and articulating our deepest sorrows in unpolished terms. For those witnessing suffering, Job's friends' initial seven days of silence are profoundly instructive: sometimes the most compassionate and truly helpful response is simply to be present in the pain, offering silent solidarity rather than immediate theological explanations, well-meaning platitudes, or attempts to "fix" the situation. This verse calls us to cultivate radical empathy, recognizing that the depths of another's despair may be unfathomable to us, and that their cries, however unsettling or seemingly irreligious, are a legitimate expression of their humanity and, paradoxically, a form of continued, albeit desperate, engagement with God.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Is Job's curse on his birth day considered sinful?
Answer: While Job's words in Job 3:3 are extreme and express deep despair, they are generally not interpreted as sinful in the sense of rebellion or blasphemy against God. Instead, they are understood as a raw, honest lament, a cry of anguish from a man pushed to his absolute limits. The biblical narrative presents Job's lament as part of his intense wrestling with God, not an abandonment of God. Unlike outright cursing God (which his wife suggested in Job 2:9), Job curses the day of his birth and the night of his conception, expressing a wish for non-existence as an escape from his suffering. This distinction is crucial; it's a desperate cry for relief and an expression of his unbearable pain, not an act of defiance against the divine. The Book of Job ultimately affirms Job's righteousness despite these intense expressions of pain, demonstrating that God allows for such honest outpouring from His suffering children, even when it is difficult to hear.
How does Job's lament in Job 3:3 relate to his initial responses to suffering in Job 1-2?
Answer: Job 3:3 marks a dramatic and profound shift from Job's initial responses to suffering. In Job 1:21, after losing his children and possessions, Job famously declared, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Similarly, in Job 2:10, when afflicted with grievous boils, he rebuked his wife, saying, "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" These initial responses demonstrate remarkable piety, unwavering faith, and submission to divine sovereignty. However, after seven days of silent, agonizing suffering in the presence of his friends, the cumulative physical and emotional toll becomes unbearable. Job 3:3 represents the breaking point, where Job's internal anguish can no longer be contained. It's a progression from stoic acceptance to raw, unfiltered lament, showing that the human capacity for endurance can be exhausted, and that even the most righteous can reach a state of profound despair that compels them to question their very existence.
What is the significance of Job cursing both the "day" and the "night" of his birth/conception?
Answer: By cursing both the "day" of his birth and the "night" of his conception, Job is expressing a comprehensive and absolute desire to negate his entire existence from its absolute earliest point. The "day" of birth is the public, visible, and celebrated moment of entry into the world. The "night" of conception, however, is the hidden, intimate, and foundational moment of his very formation in the womb. By cursing both, Job leaves no stone unturned in his wish for non-being. It's not just that he wishes he hadn't been born, but that he wishes he had never even been conceived, desiring to retroactively erase his entire personal history. This dual curse emphasizes the utter totality of his despair and his longing for complete erasure from time and space, demonstrating the unfathomable depth of his suffering and his fervent desire to escape it at its very origin.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Job's profound lament in Job 3:3, a desperate cry for non-existence in the face of unbearable suffering, finds its ultimate answer and transformative fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. While Job wishes he had never been born to escape pain, Christ willingly embraced the full spectrum of human suffering, including the deepest anguish and abandonment, not to escape it, but to conquer it. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus himself experienced a profound agony that led Him to pray, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will" (Matthew 26:39). This echoes Job's wrestling with the divine will, but with a perfect submission that Job, in his brokenness, could not fully achieve. On the cross, Jesus bore the ultimate curse of sin and death, becoming sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Job's desire for his "day" to perish is tragically fulfilled in Christ's death, a death that was real and complete, but that death is immediately followed by resurrection, ushering in a new "day" of hope and new creation. In Christ, the curse of suffering and death is swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54). For all who are "in Christ," Job's longing for an undoing of existence is replaced by the promise of a glorious new birth and eternal life, where "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4). Thus, Job's lament, though deeply human, points forward to the divine solution found only in the Lamb of God, who transforms even the desire for non-being into the promise of abundant, everlasting life.