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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.
The year of our illumination will be accomplished at the appearing of the eternal Judge of the holy church when the life of its pilgrimage is completed. [The church] then receives the recompense of its labors when, having finished this season of warfare, [it] returns to its native country. Hence, the prophet says, “You shall bless the crown of the year with your goodness.” For the “crown of the year” is, as it were, “blessed” as the reward of virtues is bestowed when the season of toil comes to an end. But the days of this year are the several virtues, and its months the many deeds of those virtues. Moreover, note that when the mind is erected in confidence, it has a good hope that when the Judge comes it will receive the reward of the mind’s virtues. All the evil things [the church] has done are also remembered. It greatly fears lest the strict Judge, who comes to reward virtues, should also examine and weigh exactly those things that have been unlawfully committed. Thus, when “the year” is completed, the “night” is also reckoned.… There are some people that not only have no remorse for what they do but unceasingly uphold and applaud their actions. Truly, a sin that is upheld is doubled. One writer correctly condemns this attitude by saying, “My son, have you sinned? Don’t add on to what you have done.” For a person “adds sin to sin” who, over and above what he has done, justifies his error. He does not “leave the night alone” who also adds vindication’s support to the darkness of his fault. Thus, the first man Adam, when questioned concerning the night of his error, would not allow his “night” to remain alone. God’s questioning called Adam to repentance, but Adam responded by justifying himself, saying, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I did eat.” Adam covertly blames his Maker for the fault of Adam’s transgression. It was as if Adam said, “You provided me with an occasion for sin, because you gave me the woman.” Therefore, the branch of this sin remains manifest in the human race up to the present time. We continue to justify our misdeeds.
13. That night is made solitary, in that it is divided by an eternal separation from the company of the land above. Yet this may be also taken in another sense, viz. that he loses man, whom he had made his fellow in ruin, and that the enemy perishes alone together with his body [i.e. the wicked], while many that he had destroyed are restored by the Redeemer's grace. The night then is made solitary, when they that are Elect being raised up, our old enemy is made over alone to the eternal flames of hell. And it is well said, Let it be worthy of no praise. For when mankind, encompassed with the darkness of error, took stones for gods, in this, that they worshipped idols, what else did they but praise the deeds of their seducer? Hence Paul rightly remarks, We know that an idol is nothing. But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils. [1 Cor. 8, 4; 10, 20] How else then is it with those that have bowed themselves to the worship of idols, but that they have ‘praised the darkness of night?’ But, lo! we see now that that night is known to be unworthy ‘of any praise,’ since now the worship of idols is condemned by the human race redeemed; and that ‘night is left solitary',’ in that there is none that goeth with the damned apostate spirit to suffer torments.
39. There are some men that not only never bewail what they do, but who do not cease to uphold and applaud it, and verily a sin that is upheld, is doubled. And against this it is rightly said by one, My son, hast thou sinned? add not again thereto. [Ecclus. 21, 1] For he ‘adds sin to sin,’ who over and above maintains what he has done amiss; and he does not ‘leave the night alone,’ who adds the support of vindication also to the darkness of his fault. It is hence that the first man, when called in question concerning the ‘night’ of his error, would not have the same ‘night’ to be ‘solitary,’ in that while by that questioning he was called to repentance, he added the props of self-exculpation, saying, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat; i.e. covertly turning the fault of his transgression upon his Maker; as if he said, ‘Thou gavest me occasion of transgressing, Who gavest me the woman.’ It is hence that in the human race the branch of this sin is drawn out from that root so far as to this present time, that what is done amiss should be yet further maintained. Let him say then, Let that light be solitary, and not worthy of any praise. As though he besought in plain words, ‘Let the fault that we have done remain alone, lest while it is praised and upheld, it bind us a hundredfold more in the sight of our Judge. We ought not indeed to have sinned, but would that, by not adding others, we would even leave those by themselves, which we have committed.'
40. But here it is to be impressed upon our minds, that he in a true sense bears hard upon his sin, whose heart is no longer set to the love of the present state of being by any longing for prosperity, who sees how deceitful are the caresses of this world, and reckons its smiles as a kind of persecution.
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SUMMARY
Job 3:7 captures the profound depth of Job's despair as he curses the night of his conception or birth. Following seven days of silent mourning with his friends, Job breaks his silence, not with praise or a direct question to God, but with a fervent wish for the night of his origin to be utterly barren, desolate, and devoid of any celebratory sounds. This verse encapsulates his desperate desire for non-existence, reflecting the overwhelming burden of his catastrophic losses, unimaginable physical suffering, and the profound sense of isolation that has consumed him.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Job 3:7 is rich in literary devices that powerfully amplify the depth of Job's despair. The entire chapter is a profound Lament, a poetic expression of grief and sorrow, directed not at God directly but at the circumstances of his birth. Job employs Hyperbole by wishing for the complete annihilation of his origin—an extreme and impossible desire that vividly conveys the overwhelming magnitude of his suffering and his longing for an escape from it. The phrase "let that night be solitary" creates potent Imagery of a barren, empty space, evoking a sense of utter desolation, isolation, and unproductivity. This imagery is further reinforced by the stark Antithesis between the expected "joyful voice" of birth and the desired silence and emptiness. The absence of joy is highlighted by the very mention of what should be present but is wished away, underscoring the profound sorrow and abandonment that has consumed Job, making his pain almost palpable to the reader.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 3:7 encapsulates a critical theological tension within the book: the raw human experience of profound suffering and the questioning of life's value in the face of overwhelming pain, set against the backdrop of God's mysterious sovereignty. Job's lament, while extreme in its expression, provides a biblical precedent for the validity of expressing raw, unfiltered grief and even despair to God. It challenges simplistic theological frameworks that equate suffering directly with sin, forcing a deeper contemplation of the problem of evil, the nature of divine justice, and the often-unfathomable ways of God. This verse reminds us that authentic faith is not the absence of doubt or pain, but often involves wrestling honestly and passionately with God in the midst of it, bringing our deepest anguish before Him without pretense.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job's profound lament in Job 3:7 offers a crucial space for acknowledging the stark reality of human anguish and the natural inclination to question existence when faced with unimaginable pain. It validates the experience of deep sorrow, reminding us that lament is not a sign of weak faith but a legitimate, biblically modeled, and often necessary form of prayer and expression within a relationship with God. In a world that often pressures individuals to maintain a facade of strength or happiness, Job's raw honesty provides profound permission to voice our deepest sorrows, frustrations, and even despair to the Almighty. This passage encourages profound empathy for those who are suffering, urging us to sit with them in their pain, much like Job's friends initially did in silence, rather than offering platitudes, premature theological explanations, or simplistic solutions. Ultimately, while Job's words express a wish contrary to God's gift of life, they serve as a powerful testament to the human experience of grief, reminding us that even in the darkest nights, God is present, and our cries, however desperate, are heard and held in His sovereign care.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why does Job curse the night of his birth instead of God directly?
Answer: Job's decision to curse the night of his birth rather than God directly is profoundly significant. It reflects his deep-seated piety and reverence for God, even in the midst of his immense suffering. While he is overwhelmed by his circumstances and wishes for non-existence, he refrains from directly blaspheming God, which was precisely what Satan predicted he would do (Job 1:11). By cursing the day and night of his birth (Job 3:3-7), Job is expressing a wish that his life had never begun, effectively questioning the very fabric of his existence and the circumstances that led to his suffering, rather than directly accusing the divine orchestrator. This indirect lament allows him to vent his profound anguish and despair while still, in a sense, maintaining his integrity and reverence before God, despite the depth of his pain.
Is it acceptable for believers to express such deep despair or even wish for death?
Answer: The book of Job, along with numerous other biblical texts like the Psalms of lament (Psalm 88) or the laments of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:14-18), demonstrates that it is indeed acceptable, and even biblically modeled, for believers to express profound despair, grief, and even a longing for an end to suffering. These passages provide a sacred space for the raw, unedited emotions of human experience, affirming that God is big enough to handle our honest cries, doubts, and despair. While wishing for death is not the ideal or ultimate hope for a believer, the Bible acknowledges that such thoughts can arise from overwhelming pain and trauma. The purpose of these laments is often to bring the full weight of one's suffering before God, trusting that He hears and cares, even when answers are not immediately apparent, and that true hope is ultimately found in Him.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Job's profound lament in Job 3:7, a desperate wish for non-existence and a night utterly devoid of joy, finds its ultimate counterpoint and redemptive fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. While Job cursed his birth and longed for a solitary, joyless void, Jesus embraced His birth, knowing it would lead to unimaginable suffering for the salvation of humanity. Christ, the ultimate Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53:3), experienced a depth of anguish far exceeding Job's, bearing not only physical pain and loss but the very sin of the world. His cry of dereliction on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46), echoes the profound sense of abandonment Job felt, yet it was a cry that ultimately secured our redemption and restored our relationship with God. Unlike Job's wish for a solitary, joyless night, Christ's death on the cross transformed the darkest hour into the dawn of eternal life and true joy for all who believe, as He conquered death and sin (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). Through His resurrection, Christ conquered death, sorrow, and the power of sin, offering a hope that transcends any earthly suffering. He is the one who promises to wipe away every tear (Revelation 21:4) and bring an end to all pain, ensuring that for those in Him, there will be no more solitary nights, but an eternity filled with the "fullness of joy" in His presence (Psalm 16:11). He transforms the curse of existence under sin into the blessing of new life in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17), turning lament into everlasting praise and the promise of a glorious future.