Job 3:1-10

Job Regrets His Birth

1 {Afterward} Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.
2 Thus Job {spoke up} and said,
3 "Let [the] day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, 'A man-child is conceived.'
4 Let that day become darkness; may God not seek it from above, nor may daylight shine on it.
5 Let darkness and deep shadow claim it; let clouds settle on it; let them terrify it [with the] blackness of day.
6 Let darkness seize that night; let it not rejoice among [the] days of [the] year; let it not enter among [the] number of [the] months.
7 Look, let that night become barren; let a joyful song not enter it.
8 Let those who curse the day curse it, those who are skilled at rousing Leviathan.
9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light but there be none, and let it not see [the] eyelids of dawn
10 because it did not shut the doors of my [mother's] womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

Job 3:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 3

In this chapter we have an account of Job's cursing the day of his birth, and the night of his conception; Job 3:1-3; first the day, to which he wishes the most extreme darkness, Job 3:4,5; then the night, to which he wishes the same and that it might be destitute of all joy, and be cursed by others as well as by himself, Job 3:6-9; The reasons follow, because it did not prevent his coming into the world, and because he died not on it, Job 3:10-12; which would, as he judged, have been an happiness to him; and this he illustrates by the still and quiet state of the dead, the company they are with, and their freedom from all trouble, oppression, and bondage, Job 3:13-19; but however, since it was otherwise with him, he desires his life might not be prolonged, and expostulates about the continuance of it, Job 3:20-23; and this by reason of his present troubles, which were many and great, and came upon him as he feared they would, and which had made him uneasy in his prosperity, Job 3:24-26.

Footnotes 12

  • [a]. Literally "After thus"
  • [b]. A different term than that employed in 1:5, 11; 2:5, 9
  • [c]. Hebrew "And"
  • [d]. Literally "answered"
  • [e]. Or "be"
  • [f]. Literally "cloud"
  • [g]. Masculine plural referring to all three entities mentioned in this verse
  • [h]. Literally "blacknesses"
  • [i]. Literally "That night, let darkness seize it"
  • [j]. Or "be"
  • [k]. Hebrew "and"
  • [l]. Hebrew "And"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.