Job 3:14-24

14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves;

15 Or with princes that had gold, Who filled their houses with silver:

16 Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light.

17 There the wicked cease from troubling; And there the weary are at rest.

18 There the prisoners are at ease together; They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

19 The small and the great are there: And the servant is free from his master.

20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, And life unto the bitter in soul;

21 Who long for death, but it cometh not, And dig for it more than for hid treasures;

22 Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad, when they can find the grave?

23 [Why is light given] to a man whose way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in?

24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my groanings are poured out like water.

Job 3:14-24 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.