Job 3:24

24 "Instead of bread I get groans for my supper, then leave the table and vomit my anguish.

Job 3:24 Meaning and Commentary

Job 3:24

For my sighing cometh before I eat
Or, "before my bread", or "food" F7; before he sat down to eat, or had tasted of his food, there were nothing but sighing and sobbing, so that he had no appetite for his food, and could take no delight in it; and, while he was eating, his tears mingled with it, so that these were his meat and his drink continually, and he was fed with the bread and water of affliction; and therefore what were light and life to such a person, who could not have the pleasure of one comfortable meal?

and my roarings are poured out like the waters;
he not only wept privately and in secret, and cried more publicly both to God and in the presence of men, but such was the force and weight of his affliction, that he even roared out, and that like a lion; and his afflictions, which were the cause of these roarings, are compared to waters and the pouring of them out; for the noise these waterspouts made, and for the great abundance of them, and for their quick and frequent returns, and long continuance, one wave and billow rolling upon another.


FOOTNOTES:

F7 (ymxl ynpl) "ante cibum meum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "ante panem meum", Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis.

Job 3:24 In-Context

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.
25 The worst of my fears has come true, what I've dreaded most has happened.
26 My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed. No rest for me, ever - death has invaded life."
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.