Job 3:7

7 May that night be childless; may no happy singing come in it.

Job 3:7 Meaning and Commentary

Job 3:7

Lo, let that night be solitary
Let there be no company for journeys, or doing any business; no meetings of friends, neighbours, or relations on it, for refreshment, pleasure, and recreation, after the business of the day is over, as is frequently done; let there be no associations of this kind, or any other: in the night it was usual to have feasts on various accounts, and especially on account of marriage; but now let there be none, let there be as profound a silence as if all creatures, men and beasts, were dead, and removed from off the face of the earth, and nothing to be heard and seen on it: or, "let it be barren" or "desolate" ^F5, so R. Simeon bar Tzemach interprets it, and refers to ( Isaiah 49:21 ) ; that is, let no children be born in it, and so no occasion for any joy on that account, as follows; let it be as barren as a flint ^F6:

let no joyful voice come therein;
which some even carry to the nocturnal singing of saints in private or in public assemblies, and to the songs of angels, those morning stars in heaven; but it seems rather to design natural or civil joy, or singing on civil accounts; as on account of marriage, and particularly on account of the birth of a child, and especially his own birth, and even any expressions of joy on any account; and that there might not be so much as the crowing of a cock heard, as the Targum has it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 (dwmlg) "orba", Syr. "desolata", Ar. "vasta", Schmidt.
F6 "Sterilis", Schultens; "effoetus", apud Arab. in ib. See Hottinger. Smegma Orientale, l. 1. c. 7. p. 136.

Job 3:7 In-Context

5 May deepest darkness claim it and a cloud linger over it; may all that darkens the day terrify it.

6 May gloom seize that night; may it not be counted in the days of a year; may it not appear in the months.

7 May that night be childless; may no happy singing come in it.

8 May those who curse the day curse it, those with enough skill to awaken Leviathan.

9 May its evening stars stay dark; may it wait in vain for light; may it not see dawn's gleam,