Job 3:11

11 Why did death not take me when I came out of my mother's body, why did I not, when I came out, give up my last breath?

Job 3:11 Meaning and Commentary

Job 3:11

Why died I not from the womb?
&c.] That is, as soon as he came out of it; or rather, as soon as he was in it, or from the time that he was in it; or however, while he was in it, that so he might not have come alive out of it; which sense seems best to agree both with what goes before and follows after; for since his conception in the womb was not hindered, he wishes he had died in it; and so some versions render it to this sense ^F14:

[why] did I [not] give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
since he died not in the womb, which was desirable to him, he wishes that the moment he came out of it he had expired, and is displeased because it was not so, see ( Jeremiah 20:17 ) ( Hosea 9:11 ) ; thus what is the special favour of Providence, to be taken out of the womb alive, and preserved, he wishes not to have enjoyed, see ( Psalms 22:9 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 (Mxrm) (en koilia) , Sept. "in vulva", V. L. "aut, in utero", Beza, Mercerus, Cocceius, Junius, Michaelis; so R. Abraham Peritzol, and Simeon Bar Tzemach.

Job 3:11 In-Context

9 Let its morning stars be dark; let it be looking for light, but may it not have any; let it not see the eyes of the dawn.

10 Because it did not keep the doors of my mother's body shut, so that trouble might be veiled from my eyes.

11 Why did death not take me when I came out of my mother's body, why did I not, when I came out, give up my last breath?

12 Why did the knees take me, or why the breasts that they might give me milk?

13 For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in sleep have been in peace,