Job 3:8-18

8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.

9 Let the stars of its dawn be darkened; they waited for light, but have none; neither let them see the dawning of the day;

10 because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb nor hide the misery from my eyes.

11 Why did I not die from the womb? Why did I not give up the spirit when I came out of the belly?

12 Why did the knees receive me? Of what use the breasts that I should suck?

13 For now I should have lain still and been quiet; I should have slept; then I would have been at rest,

14 with the kings and the counsellors of the earth, who built desolate places for themselves;

15 or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

16 Or, why was I not hidden as an untimely birth, as infants who never saw light?

17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary are at rest.

18 There the prisoners rest together, they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

Job 3:8-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 3

In this chapter we have an account of Job's cursing the day of his birth, and the night of his conception; Job 3:1-3; first the day, to which he wishes the most extreme darkness, Job 3:4,5; then the night, to which he wishes the same and that it might be destitute of all joy, and be cursed by others as well as by himself, Job 3:6-9; The reasons follow, because it did not prevent his coming into the world, and because he died not on it, Job 3:10-12; which would, as he judged, have been an happiness to him; and this he illustrates by the still and quiet state of the dead, the company they are with, and their freedom from all trouble, oppression, and bondage, Job 3:13-19; but however, since it was otherwise with him, he desires his life might not be prolonged, and expostulates about the continuance of it, Job 3:20-23; and this by reason of his present troubles, which were many and great, and came upon him as he feared they would, and which had made him uneasy in his prosperity, Job 3:24-26.