Job 3:4-14

4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

5 Let darkness and the shades of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

6 As [for] that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined to the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.

8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.

9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark; let it look for light, but [have] none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

10 Because it prevented not my birth, nor hid sorrow from my eyes.

11 Why died I not from the womb? [why] did I [not] expire at the time of my birth?

12 Why did the knees receive me? or why the breasts that I should be nursed?

13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

14 With kings and counselors of the earth, who built desolate places for themselves;

Job 3:4-14 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.