Job 3:9

9 May its morning stars turn to black cinders, waiting for a daylight that never comes, never once seeing 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 Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness - no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever!
8 May those who are good at cursing curse that day. Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it.
9 May its morning stars turn to black cinders, waiting for a daylight that never comes, never once seeing the first light of dawn.
10 And why? Because it released me from my mother's womb into a life with so much trouble.
11 "Why didn't I die at birth, my first breath out of the womb my last?
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.