Job 3:9

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

Job 3:9 Meaning and Commentary

Job 3:9

Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark
Either of the morning or evening twilight; both may be meant, rather the latter, because of the following clause; the sense is, let not these appear to adorn the heavens, and to relieve the darkness of the night, and make it more pleasant and delightful, as well as to be useful to travellers and sailors:

let it look for light, but [have] none;
that is, either for the light of the moon and stars, to shine in the night till daybreak, or for the light of the sun at the time when it arises; but let it have neither; let the whole time, from sun setting to sunrising, from one twilight to another, be one continued gross and horrible darkness; here, by a strong and beautiful figure, looking is ascribed to the night:

neither let it see the dawning of the day;
or, "let it not see the eyelids of the morning" ^F12, or what we call "peep of day"; here, in very elegant language, the dawn of morning light is expressed, which is like the opening of an eye and its lids, quick and vibrating, when light is let in and perceived; or this may be interpreted of the sun, the eye of the morning and of light, and of its rays, which, when first darted, are like the opening of the eyelids.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F12 (rxv ypepe) "palpebras aurorae", Montanus, Mercerus

Job 3:9 In-Context

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

10 because it did not shut the doors of the womb [from which I came] or hide my eyes from trouble.

11 "Why didn't I die as soon as I was born and breathe my last breath when I came out of the womb?