Job 3:7

7 Let that night be empty. Let no joyful singing be heard 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 Let the darkness and long shadows claim it as their own. Let a dark cloud hang over it. Let the gloom terrify it.

6 "That night-- let the blackness take it away. Let it not be included in the days of the year or be numbered among the months.

7 Let that night be empty. Let no joyful singing be heard in it.

8 Let those who curse the day (those who know how to wake up Leviathan ) curse that night.

9 Let its stars turn dark before dawn. Let it hope for light and receive none. Let it not see the first light of dawn