Job 3:24

24 For my sighing comes like my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.

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 rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is light given to one who cannot see the way, whom God has fenced in?
24 For my sighing comes like my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.
25 Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes."

Footnotes 1

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.