Job 3
Job 3 is part of “Job's Lament” (3) in the outline of Job.
Job 3 summary
"You have heard of the patience of Job," says the apostle, Jam 5:11. So we have, and of his impatience too. We wondered that a man should be so patient as he was (ch. 1 and Job 2:1-13), but we wonder also that a good man should be so impatient as he is in this chapter, where we find him cursing his day, and, in passion, I. Complaining that he was born (Job 3:1-10).
Read the full introduction
"You have heard of the patience of Job," says the apostle, Jam 5:11. So we have, and of his impatience too. We wondered that a man should be so patient as he was (ch. 1 and Job 2:1-13), but we wonder also that a good man should be so impatient as he is in this chapter, where we find him cursing his day, and, in passion, I. Complaining that he was born (Job 3:1-10). II. Complaining that he did not die as soon as he was born (Job 3:11-19). III. Complaining that his life was now continued when he was in misery (Job 3:20-26). In this it must be owned that Job sinned with his lips, and it is written, not for our imitation, but our admonition, that he who things he stands may take heed lest he fall.
Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706–21; Romans–Revelation completed by Nonconformist ministers). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).
Job 3 (ASV)
American Standard Version (public domain)
Job Curses the Day of His Birth
1After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. 2And Job answered and said: 3Let the day perish wherein I was born, And the night which said, There is a man-child conceived. 4Let that day be darkness; Let not God from above seek for it, Neither let the light shine upon it. 5Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own; Let a cloud dwell upon it; Let all that maketh black the day terrify it. 6As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it: Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not come into the number of the months. 7Lo, let that night be barren; Let no joyful voice come therein. 8Let them curse it that curse the day, Who are ready to rouse up leviathan. 9Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark: Let it look for light, but have none; Neither let it behold the eyelids of the morning: 10Because it shut not up the doors of my [mother’s] womb, Nor hid trouble from mine eyes. 11Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me? 12Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck? 13For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest, 14With kings and counsellors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves; 15Or with princes that had gold, Who filled their houses with silver: 16Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light. 17There the wicked cease from troubling; And there the weary are at rest. 18There the prisoners are at ease together; They hear not the voice of the taskmaster. 19The small and the great are there: And the servant is free from his master. 20Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, And life unto the bitter in soul; 21Who long for death, but it cometh not, And dig for it more than for hid treasures; 22Who 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? 24For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my groanings are poured out like water. 25For the thing which I fear cometh upon me, And that which I am afraid of cometh unto me. 26I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; But trouble cometh.