Job 3:18-26

18 Prisoners sleep undisturbed, never again to wake up to the bark of the guards.

19 The small and the great are equals in that place, and slaves are free from their masters.

20 "Why does God bother giving light to the miserable, why bother keeping bitter people alive,

21 Those who want in the worst way to die, and can't, who can't imagine anything better than death,

22 Who count the day of their death and burial the happiest day of their life?

23 What's the point of life when it doesn't make sense, when God blocks all the roads to meaning?

24 "Instead of bread I get groans for my supper, then leave the table and vomit my anguish.

25 The worst of my fears has come true, what I've dreaded most has happened.

26 My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed. No rest for me, ever - death has invaded life."

Job 3:18-26 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.