Job 3:22

22 Who count the day of their death and burial the happiest day of their life?

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 does God bother giving light to the miserable, why bother keeping bitter people alive,
21 Those who want in the worst way to die, and can't, who can't imagine anything better than death,
22 Who count the day of their death and burial the happiest day of their life?
23 What's the point of life when it doesn't make sense, when God blocks all the roads to meaning?
24 "Instead of bread I get groans for my supper, then leave the table and vomit my anguish.
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.