Job 3:5-15

5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it; let clouds dwell upon it; let darkeners of the day terrify it.

6 That night -- let gloom seize upon it; let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

7 Behold, let that night be barren; let no joyful sound come therein;

8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to rouse Leviathan;

9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark; let it wait for light, and have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the dawn:

10 Because it shut not up the doors of the womb that bore me, and hid not trouble from mine eyes.

11 Wherefore did I not die from the womb, -- come forth from the belly and expire?

12 Why did the knees meet me? and wherefore the breasts, that I should suck?

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

14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, who build desolate places for themselves,

15 Or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;

Job 3:5-15 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

• [a]. See Job 41.1; Ps. 74.14; 104.26; Isa. 27.1.
• [b]. Or 'who ruined buildings.'