Job 3: Job Desired to Remove His Reproach from Israel - 1 of 3 1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 And Job spoke, and said: 3“May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.’ 4 May that day be darkness; may God above not seek it, nor the light shine upon it. 5 May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; may a cloud settle on it; may the blackness of the day terrify it. 6 As for that night, may darkness seize it; may it not rejoice among the days of the year, may it not come into the number of the months. 7 Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it! 8 May those curse it who curse the day, those who are ready to arouse Leviathan. 9 May the stars of its morning be dark; may it look for light, but have none, and not see the dawning of the day; 10 because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide sorrow from my eyes. After the sabbath rest, “now the real conflict begins, through which the hero of the book passes, not indeed without sinning, but still triumphantly.” (Keil and Delitzsch) In Jeremiah 20:14-18, “it is apparently clear that Jeremiah is quoting Job as he might quote one of the Psalms or any other writing with which he was familiar... was applying to daily life the well-known expression of a patriarchal experience.” (C. J. Ellicott) “Job’s words are very profitable for all whose way is hid. Is the joy of life fled? Yet its duties remain... the path will lead back to light.” (F. B. Meyer) Job feared that he was being cut off for his sins. Somehow the trail of the serpent is all over it but the flesh rears its head. “The most perfect man is imperfect.” (Dean Farrar) “The words of Job would be the ideal magnifying of a commonplace and realistic experience.” (C.J. Ellicott) They reveals the weakness of the flesh, but thankfully they are provided for our encouragement. Job and Elijah and Jeremiah are “men of like passion as us.” (James 5:17) “What Job hath said of the day of a man's birth, indeed, as it concerns our being born in sin, is true enough… But, otherwise, a child of God, under the heaviest affliction, hath a consolation in Jesus, to sweeten all.” (Robert Hawker) Let us “be merciful in our judgment, for we ourselves have been unbalanced, and we have not spared the eloquence of folly in the time of loss, bereavement, and great suffering. We may not have made the same speech in one set deliverance, going through it paragraph by paragraph, but if we could gather up all reproaches, murmurings, complainings, which we have uttered, and set them down in order, Job’s short chapter would be but a preface to the black volume indited by our atheistic hearts…’ ‘The best of men,’ as one has quaintly said, ‘are but men at the best.’ God Himself knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust.” (Joseph Parker) If he here lost ALL patience, “he would not have been so highly spoken of as he is in James 5:11.” (John Gill) “‘After this Job ‘opened his mouth’ The phrase is not to be dismissed merely as a Hebraism. It is one used only on solemn occasions, and implies the utterance of deep thoughts, well considered beforehand (Ps 78:21; Matt 5:2), or of feelings long repressed, and now at length allowed expression.” (Pulpit Commentaries)— “‘and cursed the day of his birth.’ (1) This was far short of what Satan hoped.” (J. Caryl) “He did not curse his God, as Satan said he would, and his wife advised him to: nor did he curse his fellow creatures, or his friends, as wicked men in passion are apt to do, nor did he curse himself, as profane persons often do, when any evil befalls them; but he cursed his day; not the day on which his troubles came upon him, for there were more than one, and they were still continued, but the day of his birth.” (John Gill) Compare Job to Jesus. “What are Job’s sufferings in comparison with the sufferings of our Lord! Job sat upon an ash-heap, but the Son of God was nailed to the cross and then He was forsaken of God. Never did a murmur escape those blessed lips…” (Gaebelein) in fulfillment of Isaiah 53:7. “And Job spoke, and said: ‘May the day perish on which I was born,’ (2-3a) as recurring yearly, not against the actual first day (Schlottm.), to which the imprecations which follow are not pertinent. Job wishes his birthday may become dies ater, swallowed up by darkness as into nothing.” (Keil & Delitzsch) “One writer (Procopius of Gaza) interprets Job’s ‘day’ to be the day when man fell from righteousness to sin.” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) “Job goes back to his conception, as being the spring of his sorrows; for this he knew as well as David, that he was shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin.” (John Gill) This is an analogy of creation. As God had said in Genesis 1:3, ‘Let there be light,’ so Job, using the same terminology in Job 3:4, said, ‘As for that day, let there be darkness’ (literal translation).“ (David Guzik) “The meaning is exactly the same with our expression, ‘Let it be blotted out of the calendar.’” (Adam Clarke)— “‘and the night (in which) it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.’ (3b) The man child was the ancient hope of Israel. In the Hebrew mind, it was thought that “the days of the year had an existence of their own, so that any given day would come round again in its turn. Hence Job is not cursing a day which long ago ceased to be, but one which year by year comes back to blight the happiness of others as it blighted his: see on Job 3:5.” (John Dummelow) “‘May that day be darkness; may God above not seek it,’— However distinguished it may have been, as the birthday of a man once celebrated for his possessions, liberality, and piety, let it no longer be thus noted.” (Adam Clarke)— “‘nor the light shine upon it.’ (4) — “the sun to separate it from the night.” (Geneva Study Bible) “Let is be esteemed by all an unlucky and comfortless day.” (Matthew Poole) “‘May darkness and the shadow of death claim;’ literally, redeem, it’ (5a)— that day— “i.e. a black and dark shadow, like that of the place of the dead, which is a land of darkness, and where the light is darkness, as Job explains this very phrase, Job 10:21,22.” (Matthew Poole)— “‘May a cloud settle on it.’ (5b) That of God’s presence, “as on Mount Sinai when the law was given.” (John Gill) “‘May the blackness of the day terrify it.’ (5b) — “to wit, the day, i.e. men in it.“ (Matthew Poole) ”That is, most obscure darkness, which makes them afraid of death that they are in it.” (Geneva Study Bible) May the uncertainty of death do its work. May the remembrance of my case lead them to repentance and good works. “‘As for that night, may darkness seize it; may it not rejoice among the days of the year, may it not come into the number of the months.’ (6) Give it no place in the liturgical calendar of Israel. “‘Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it!’ (7) May my life not be spoken of during the feast days. Blot discussion of me out of the liturgical calendar. Let the denouncers of days, who are ever ready to excite leviathan, denounce it (8)- in contrast to Pope adding feast days, like that of “Our Lady of Loretois” to his calendar. Let them awake this mystical sea creature “of ancient Near Eastern mythology” (Roy B. Zuck) to remove it. “‘May the stars of its morning be dark; may it look for light, but have none, and not see the dawning of the day; because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide sorrow from my eyes." (9-10)
Job 3: Job Desired to Remove His Reproach from Israel 2 of 2 11 “Why did I not die at birth. Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? 12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? 13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; then I would have been at rest 14 with kings and counselors of the earth, who built ruins for themselves, 15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver; 16 or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light? 17 There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. 18 There the prisoners rest together; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor. 19 The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master. “We see from these expressions that his mind turned to death as the great emancipator. Moses and Elijah exhibit the same trend of thought and weakness; so did disappointed Jonah when he said, ‘it is better for me to die.’” (Arno Gaebelein) “My children are dead; my servants are slain; my cattle are carried away; heaven and earth have fought against me. The kings, the wise men of the earth, who have built for themselves mausoleums in desolate places, sleep in repose. The tomb, which refuses admission to me, is their retreat. There the wicked cease from wars; there the prisoner has broken his chains, and the slave is liberated from the lash of his master. The visitations which I feared, when offering sacrifices for my children, are come upon me.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “‘Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?’ (11-12) Why was I nursed with care instead of being allowed to fall to the ground and be killed?” (C. J. Ellicott) “‘For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep;’— “quiet … slept — a gradation. I should not only have lain, but been quiet, and not only been quiet, but slept. Death in Scripture is called ‘sleep’ (Psalm 13:3; Daniel 12:2); especially in the New Testament, where the resurrection-awakening is more clearly set forth (1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:10).” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown)— “‘then I would have been at rest.’— asleep in Jesus, “instead of tossing about, and being full of restlessness and suffering.” (Pulpit Commentaries) My rest for a season would have been “with kings and counselors of the earth, who built ruins for themselves,’ what proved to be (not palaces, but) ruins!” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown)— “‘Or with princes who had gold;’— A large abundance of it while they lived, but now, being dead, were no longer in the possession of it,.. ‘who filled their houses with silver’ (13-15)... but these were of no profit in the hour of death, nor could they carry them with them; but in the grave, where they were, those were equal to them, of whom it might have been said, silver and gold they had none.” (John Gill) “This verse is often applied to heaven, and the language is such as will express the condition of that blessed world. But, as used by Job, it had no such reference. It relates only to the grave.” (The Biblical Illustrator) “‘Or'- another alternative- "why was I not hidden like a stillborn child,' in the grave awaiting awards in the afterlife, "like infants who never saw light?’ (16) All of them, the builders of great palaces, the rich millionaires, together with the still-born babes, they all enter into the rest of the grave, whether this be decorated with a structure upon whose ruins men gaze with wondering surprise, or whether it be a hole in the ground whose very location is afterward forgotten.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) “‘There”— in the grave- “the prisoners rest together;’— translated in some places as, “in like manner”— as those oppressors... ‘They do not hear the voice of the oppressor.’ (17)— who urgeth and forceth them by cruel threatenings and stripes to greater diligence in the works to which they are condemned.“ (Matthew Poole)— “Those who were here molested and tired out with their tyrannies, now quietly sleep with them.” (John Wesley) “Wicked men will never cease troubling until they cease to live. In the grave they cease troubling, there they are at rest. If they should live an eternity in this world, they would trouble the world to eternity. As a godly man never gives over doing good, he will do good as long as he lives, though he fetches many a weary step; so wicked men never give over doing evil, until they step into the grave. And the reason of it is, because it is their nature to do evil. The wicked will sin while they have any light to sin by; therefore God puts out their candle, and sends them down into darkness, and there they will be quiet.” (J. Caryl) All distinctions sink to “the equality of their present lot.” (Keil & Delitzsch) “‘The small and great are there,’ all those kinds of distinctions and differences being forever abolished.” (Matthew Poole) “Death mingles sceptres with spades.” (Matthew Henry) “If Job had died, he would have been at peace in Sheol, where small and great are alike at rest: ‘Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust’ (Cymbeline).” (Arthur Peake) — “‘And the servant is free from his master.’ The churchyard a hallowed resting place, where—‘The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.’... The small and great are there’— infants that never saw the light, with kings and their counsellors of state, all gather in the common ante-room of the grave, waiting the resurrection summons... The bones of the prince undistinguished in the charnel-house from those of the peasant.“ (Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary) “As there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory (1 Corinthians 15:41). So there is one terrestrial glory of kings, and another glory of nobles, and another glory of the common people, and these have not the same glory in common; even among them, one man differs from another man in this worldly glory.— But when death comes, there is an end of all degrees, of all distinctions; there the small and the great are the same. There is but one distinction that will outlive death; and death cannot take it away; the distinction of holy and unholy, clean and unclean, believer and an infidel; these distinctions remain after death, and shall remain...” (J. Caryl)- until the second death for the wicked.
Job 3:20 Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, 21 who long for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than hidden treasures; 22 rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave? 23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in 24 for my sighing comes before I eat, and my groaning pour out like water. 25 For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. 26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes.”
“The vision of the peacefulness of death vanishes, and he reawakens to the consciousness of his actual state.” (Arthur Peake) God had said that Job “is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”(1:1; 8) So, it is ok to question God. “But the proper answer to all such questioning is well given by Zophar in Job 11:7-8, ‘"Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol [the grave], what can you know?” (Pulpit Commentaries) “To write books to the sons and daughters of affliction, from comfortable parlours and luxurious drawing rooms, in vindication of the providence of God, is worse than impertinent.” (Alfred Bowen Evans) ”And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans8:28) When seeming injustice arises for us— “It seems as if our consciousness became paralysed at the touch of speculation, a dark, black wall rises where we anticipated we should find a way.” (E. Paxton Hood) “The present agony becomes so overwhelming that sufferers often cannot see hope beyond it." (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) Wait and see what the Lord does! And meanwhile there are many testimonies in the assembly. "We must not make the mistake of misjudging those who are going through this ‘valley of the shadow of death’-as Job’s friends did.” (Dr. Thomas B Constable)
“‘Why is light [within the soul] given to a man whose way is hid?’ God had revealed the Redeemer to Job. He was a righteous man. But Job could not now hear the voice of God and see the path of obedience. He likely figured that he was counted with the sinner. “He could not make his condition chord with his conviction of what ought to have happened… And the worst of all was, he could not deaden down to the level of his misery. The light given him on the Divine justice would not let him rest. His subtle spirit, restless, dissatisfied, tried him every moment.” (Robert Collyer) — ‘and life to the bitter of soul;’ unto such to whom life itself is very bitter and burdensome.” (Matthew Poole)— “‘who long for death,’ Who calls aloud for death, as Heath translates it..., who anxiously long and gasp for death; ‘but it does not come,’— They long and gasp in vain. ‘And search [dig] for it more than hidden treasures— ... It is observable, that Job durst not do any thing to hasten or procure his death. Notwithstanding all his miseries, he was contented to wait all the days of his appointed time till his change should come, Job 14:14.” (Joseph Benson)—‘[who] rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave? (22)- and thus finish the race set before them.
“’Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in’— The writer used the same Hebrew word to describe Job as one ‘hedged in’ by God with darkness and disfavor ( Job 3:23) that Satan used to describe Job as one whom God had ‘made a hedge about’ to protect him from evil ( Job 1:10).” (Thomas Constable)— “‘for my sighing comes before I eat, and my groaning pour out like water.’ (24) I fall into bitter passions of sighing and weeping; partly because my necessity and duty obligeth me to eat, and so to support this wretched life, which I long to lose.” (Matthew Poole) “For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.” (25) Some credit Job with a lack of faith. He had felt that his faith would necessarily be rewarded in this life. He questioned but remember that the patience of Job is exalted by the Lord’s brother. (Jam 5:11) “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Heb 11:6) — “I am not at ease,’ not in safety, that is, I have, or I had no peace… The sense is, that his mind had been disturbed with fearful alarms; or perhaps that at that time he was filled with dread.— “’nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes’ (26) Trouble comes upon me in every form, and I am a stranger wholly to peace. The accumulation of phrases here, all meaning nearly the same thing, is descriptive of a state of great agitation of mind. Such an accumulation is not uncommon in the Bible to denote any thing which language can scarcely describe. So in Isaiah 8:22.” (Albert Barnes)