Job 3:5

5 Let darkness and death-shade redeem it, Let a cloud tabernacle upon it, Let them terrify it as the most bitter of days.

Job 3:5 Meaning and Commentary

Job 3:5

Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it
Let there be such darkness on it as on persons when dying, or in the state of the dead; hence the sorest afflictions, and the state of man in unregeneracy, are compared unto it, ( Psalms 23:4 ) ( Isaiah 9:2 ) ; let there be nothing but foul weather, dirt, and darkness in it, which may make it very uncomfortable and undesirable; some render the word, "let darkness and [the] shadow of death redeem it" ^F26, challenge and claim it as their own, and let light have no share or property in it:

let a cloud dwell upon it;
as on Mount Sinai when the law was given; a thick dark cloud, even an assemblage of clouds, so thick and close together, that they seem but one cloud which cover the whole heavens, and obscure them, and hinder the light of the sun from shining on the earth; and this is wished to abide not for an hour or two, but to continue all the day:

let the blackness of the day terrify it;
let it be frightful to itself; or rather, let the blackness be such, or the darkness of it such gross darkness, like that as was felt by the Egyptians; that the inhabitants of the earth may be terrified with it, as Moses and the Israelites were at Mount Sinai, at the blackness, tempest, thunders, and lightnings, there seen and heard: as some understand this of black vapours exhaled by the sun, with which the heavens might be filled, so others of sultry weather and scorching heat, which is intolerable: others render the words, "let them terrify it as the bitternesses of the day" ^F1; either with bitter cursings on it, or through bitter calamities in it; or, "as those [who have] a bitter ^F2 day", as in the margin of our Bibles, and in others.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 (whlagy) "vindicassent", Junius & Tremellius; "vendicent", Cocceius; "vindicent", Schultens.
F1 (Mwy yryrmk) "tanquam amaritudines dici", Schmidt, Michaelis; "velut amarulenta diei", Schultens; so the Targum.
F2 "Velut amari diei", Mercerus; "tanquam amari diei", Montanus.

Job 3:5 In-Context

3 Let the day perish in which I am born, And the night that hath said: `A man-child hath been conceived.'

4 That day -- let it be darkness, Let not God require it from above, Nor let light shine upon it.

5 Let darkness and death-shade redeem it, Let a cloud tabernacle upon it, Let them terrify it as the most bitter of days.

6 That night -- let thick darkness take it, Let it not be united to days of the year, Into the number of months let it not come.

7 Lo! that night -- let it be gloomy, Let no singing come into it.