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Job 3:9-19

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9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see 1the eyelids of the morning,
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.
11 "Why 2did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?
12 Why did 3the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth who 4rebuilt ruins for themselves,
15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden 5stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at 6rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of 7the taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.
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Job 3:9-19 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 3

In this chapter we have an account of Job's cursing the day of his birth, and the night of his conception; Job 3:1-3; first the day, to which he wishes the most extreme darkness, Job 3:4,5; then the night, to which he wishes the same and that it might be destitute of all joy, and be cursed by others as well as by himself, Job 3:6-9; The reasons follow, because it did not prevent his coming into the world, and because he died not on it, Job 3:10-12; which would, as he judged, have been an happiness to him; and this he illustrates by the still and quiet state of the dead, the company they are with, and their freedom from all trouble, oppression, and bondage, Job 3:13-19; but however, since it was otherwise with him, he desires his life might not be prolonged, and expostulates about the continuance of it, Job 3:20-23; and this by reason of his present troubles, which were many and great, and came upon him as he feared they would, and which had made him uneasy in his prosperity, Job 3:24-26.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 7

  • 1. Job 41:18
  • 2. Job 10:18, 19
  • 3. Genesis 30:3; Genesis 50:23; Isaiah 66:12
  • 4. [Isaiah 58:12]
  • 5. Psalms 58:8; Ecclesiastes 6:3; [1 Corinthians 15:8]
  • 6. Job 17:16
  • 7. Exodus 3:7
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.