Job 3:6

6 If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear^[a] among the days of the year or be listed in the calendar.^[b]

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.

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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 If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above not care about it, or light shine on it.

5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it. May an eclipse of the sun terrify it.

6 If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year or be listed in the calendar.

7 Yes, may that night be barren; may no joyful shout be heard in it.

8 Let those who curse [certain] days cast a spell on it, those who are skilled in rousing Leviathan.

Footnotes

• [a] LXX, Syr, Tg, Vg; MT reads rejoice
• [b] Lit or enter the number of months