Job 10:19

19 If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!

Job 10:19 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
19 I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
English Standard Version (ESV)
19 and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave.
New Living Translation (NLT)
19 It would be as though I had never existed, going directly from the womb to the grave.
The Message Bible (MSG)
19 I wish I'd never lived - a stillborn, buried without ever having breathed.
American Standard Version (ASV)
19 I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
19 Then it would be as if I had never existed, as if I had been carried from the womb to the tomb.
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
19 I wish I had never existed but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
19 I wish I'd never been born! I wish I'd been carried straight from my mother's body to the grave!

Job 10:19 Meaning and Commentary

Job 10:19

I should have been as though I had not been
For though it cannot be said absolutely of such an one, an abortive or untimely birth, that it is a nonentity, or never existed; yet comparatively it is as if it never had a being; it being seen by none or very few, it having had no name, nor any conversation among men; but at once buried, and buried in forgetfulness, as if no such one had ever been; see ( Ecclesiastes 6:3-5 ) . This Job wished for, for so some render it, "oh, that I had been as though I had never been" F6; and then he would have never been involved in such troubles he was, he would have been free from all his afflictions and distresses, and never have had any experience of the sorrows that now surrounded him:

I should have been carried from the womb to the grave;
if he had not been brought out of it, the womb had been his grave, as in ( Jeremiah 20:17 ) ; or if he had died in it, and had been stillborn, he would quickly have been carried to his grave; he would have seen and known nothing of life and of the world, and the things in it; and particularly of the troubles that attend mortals here: his passage in it and through it would have been very short, or none at all, no longer than from the womb to the grave; and so should never have known what sorrow was, or such afflictions he now endured; such an one being in his esteem happier than he; see ( Ecclesiastes 4:3 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F6 So Vatablus, Piscator, and some in Mercerus.

Job 10:19 In-Context

17 You bring new witnesses against me and increase your anger toward me; your forces come against me wave upon wave.
18 “Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.
19 If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!
20 Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy
21 before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness,

Cross References 1

  • 1. S Job 3:3; Jeremiah 15:10
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