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Wisdom & Poetry · Old Testament

Job 3

Job 3: Job curses the day of his birth

General context

After the seven days of silence Job opens his mouth and curses his day. He calls for the day of his birth to perish and the night of his conception to be lost from the calendar, asking that darkness claim it, that God not regard it, that no joyful voice be heard in it, and that its stars be dark. He gives the reason: the day did not shut the doors of his mother's womb. He then asks why he did not die at birth and why knees and breasts received him. Had he died, he says, he would now lie still with kings, counsellors and princes, or be like an untimely birth that never saw light. He describes the grave as a place where the wicked cease troubling, the weary rest, prisoners hear no oppressor, and the servant is free from his master. He asks why light is given to the miserable and life to the bitter in soul who long for death and dig for it more than for treasure, and why light is given to a man whose way is hidden and whom God has hedged in. He ends with his own condition: sighing before he eats, roarings poured out like water, the thing he greatly feared now come upon him, and no safety, rest or quiet, yet trouble came.

Cited passages: Job 3:1, Job 3:3, Job 3:4, Job 3:6, Job 3:7, Job 3:9, Job 3:10, Job 3:11, Job 3:12, Job 3:13, Job 3:14, Job 3:16, Job 3:17, Job 3:18, Job 3:19, Job 3:20, Job 3:21, Job 3:23, Job 3:24, Job 3:25, Job 3:26

Job 3 (KJV)

1After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

2And Job spake, and said,

3Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.

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

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

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

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

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

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

10Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

11Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

12Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?

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

14With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;

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

16Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.

17There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.

18There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

19The small and 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;

21Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;

22Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

23Why 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 roarings are poured out like the waters.

25For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.

26I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

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Historical context

Job is the only speaker in this chapter; the narrator supplies just two framing lines, that Job opened his mouth and cursed his day, and that Job spake and said. Job curses his day, not God, and the narrator's earlier verdict that Job did not sin with his lips is not revisited here. The words are addressed to no one named; God is spoken of in the third person, let not God regard it, and the friends are not mentioned. Job's phrase whom God hath hedged in in verse 23 uses the picture Satan used in 1.10, made an hedge about him, but Job has not heard that conversation and the text does not say he knows of it. The statement that the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me can be read beside Job's habit of offering for his children in 1.5, though Job does not name the children here. The chapter gives no description of Job's illness beyond his sighing and roarings, and no account of the friends' reactions.

Cited passages: Job 3:1, Job 3:2, Job 2:10, Job 3:4, Job 3:23, Job 1:10, Job 3:25, Job 1:5, Job 3:24

Literary context

The speech falls into three parts marked by its opening words: Let the day perish (verses 3 to 10), Why died I not (verses 11 to 19), and Wherefore is light given (verses 20 to 26). The first part piles up wishes, let that day be darkness, let darkness seize upon it, let that night be solitary, reversing the ordinary welcome of light. The second part imagines the grave as a levelling place where the small and great are there. The third turns from Job's own birth to all who suffer, then narrows back to himself with For my sighing cometh before I eat. Light and darkness organize the whole: Job wants his day dark and asks why light is given to the miserable. The chapter breaks the silence of 2.13 and provokes Eliphaz's reply at 4.1, and its closing word, trouble, sets the tone for the debate that follows. No answer from God or the friends interrupts it.

Cited passages: Job 3:3, Job 3:4, Job 3:6, Job 3:7, Job 3:11, Job 3:19, Job 3:20, Job 3:24, Job 3:26, Job 2:13, Job 4:1

Key moments

  1. Job breaks the silence (Job 3:1). Job opens his mouth and curses his day.
  2. Let the day perish (Job 3:3). Job calls for the day of his birth and the night of his conception to perish.
  3. Why died I not (Job 3:11). Job asks why he did not die at birth.
  4. Rest in the grave (Job 3:17). Job describes the grave as a place where the wicked cease and the weary rest.
  5. Why light to the miserable (Job 3:20). Job asks why life is given to the bitter who long for death.
  6. Hedged in by God (Job 3:23). Job asks why light is given to a man whose way God has hedged in.
  7. What he feared has come (Job 3:25). Job says the thing he greatly feared has come upon him.

For reflection

Job never addresses God directly in this chapter, yet asks why God gives light to a man he has hedged in. What is the difference between cursing a day and accusing the one who made it, and does Job's speech keep that line?

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