Job 3:2

Job 3:2 Meaning and Commentary

Job 3:2

And Job spake, and said.
] Or "answered and said" F20, though not a word was spoken to him by his friends; he answered to his own calamity, and to their silence, as Schmidt observes; and this word is sometimes used when nothing goes before, to which the answer is, as many Jewish writers observe, as in ( Exodus 32:27 ) ( Deuteronomy 26:5 ) ( 27:14 ) ; Jarchi interprets it, "he cried", and so some others F21 render it: from henceforwards to ( Job 42:6 ) , this book is written in a poetical style, in Hebrew metre as is thought, which at present is pretty much unknown, even to the Jews themselves; some have been of opinion, that the following discourses between Job and his friends were not originally delivered in metre, but were put into this form by the penman or writer of the book; but of this we cannot be certain; in the Targum in the king of Spain's Bible it is, "and Job sung and said".


FOOTNOTES:

F20 (Neyw) "et respondit", Pagninus, Montanus, Schmidt, Schultens, Michaelis.
F21 "Clamavitquo", Mercerus; "nam proloquens", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Job 3:2 In-Context

1 Then Job broke the silence. He spoke up and cursed his fate:
3 "Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived!
4 Let it be a black hole in space. May God above forget it ever happened. Erase it from the books!
5 May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.