Job 3:22

22 They are not happy till they are dead and buried;

Job 3:22 Meaning and Commentary

Job 3:22

Which rejoice exceedingly
Or, "which joy till they do skip again", as Mr. Broughton renders it, and to the same purport others F4; are so elated as to skip and dance for joy:

[and] are glad when they can find the grave;
which is to be understood either of those who dig in the earth for hid treasure, such as is laid there by men; when they strike and hit upon a grave where they expect to find a booty; it being usual in former times to put much riches into the sepulchres of great personages, as Sanctius on the place observes; so Hyrcanus, opening the sepulchre of David, found in it three thousand talents of silver, as Josephus F5 relates: or rather this is said of the miserable and bitter in soul, who long for death, and seek after it; who, when they perceive any symptoms of its near approach, are exceedingly pleased, and rejoice at it, as when they observe the decays of nature, or any disorder and disease upon them which threaten with death; for this cannot be meant of the dead carrying to the grave, who are insensible of it, and of their being put into it.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 (lyg yla Myxmvh) "qu laetantur ad choream usque", Schultens, "quasi ad tripudium", Michaelis.
F5 Antiqu. l. 13. c. 8. sect. 4. Ed. Hudson.

Job 3:22 In-Context

20 Why let people go on living in misery? Why give light to those in grief?
21 They wait for death, but it never comes; they prefer a grave to any treasure.
22 They are not happy till they are dead and buried;
23 God keeps their future hidden and hems them in on every side.
24 Instead of eating, I mourn, and I can never stop groaning.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.