Job 3:6

6 And the night of my conception - the devil take it! Rip the date off the calendar, delete it from the almanac.

Job 3:6 Meaning and Commentary

Job 3:6

As [for] that night
The night of conception; Job imprecated evils on the day he was born, now on the night he was conceived in, the returns of it:

let darkness seize upon it;
let it not only he deprived of the light of the moon and stars, but let an horrible darkness seize upon it, that it may be an uncommon and a terrible one:

let it not be joined unto the days of the year;
the solar year, and make one of them; or, "let it not be one among them" F3, let it come into no account, and when it is sought for, let it not appear, but be found wanting; "or let it not joy" or "rejoice among the days of the year" F4, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and others interpret it, or be a joyful one, or anything joyful done or enjoyed in it:

let it not come into the number of the months;
meaning not the intercalated months, as Sephorno, nor the feasts of the new moon, as others, but let it not serve to make up a month, which consists of so many days and nights, according to the course of the moon; the sense both of this and the former clause is, let it be struck out of the calendar.


FOOTNOTES:

F3 (dxy la) "non sit una inter dies", Pagninus; "ne adunatur in diebus", Montanus.
F4 "Ne fuisset gavisa", Junius & Tremellius; "ne gaudeat", Vatablus, Beza, Mercerus, Piscator, Drusius, Broughton, Cocceius, Schmidt, Schultens, Michaelis.

Job 3:6 In-Context

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.
6 And the night of my conception - the devil take it! Rip the date off the calendar, delete it from the almanac.
7 Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness - no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever!
8 May those who are good at cursing curse that day. Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it.
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.