Job Regrets His Birth

¹ ⌞Afterward⌟¹ Job opened his mouth and cursed² his day.

1. Literally “After thus”
2. A different term than that employed in 1:5, 11; 2:5, 9

² Thus¹ Job ⌞spoke up⌟² and said,

1. Hebrew “And”
2. Literally “answered”

³ “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man-child is conceived.’

⁴ Let that day become¹ darkness; may God not seek it from above, nor may daylight shine on it.

1. Or “be”

⁵ Let darkness and deep shadow claim it; let clouds¹ settle on it; let them² terrify it with the blackness³ of day.

1. Literally “cloud”
2. Masculine plural referring to all three entities mentioned in this verse
3. Literally “blacknesses”

⁶ Let darkness seize that night;¹ let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not enter among the number of the months.

1. Literally “That night, let darkness seize it”

⁷ Look, let that night become¹ barren; let a joyful song not enter it.

1. Or “be”

⁸ Let those who curse the day curse it, those who are skilled at rousing Leviathan.

⁹ Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light but¹ there be none, and let it not see the eyelids of dawn

1. Hebrew “and”

Job Wishes He Had Died

¹⁰ because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb, nor¹ did it hide trouble from my eyes.

1. Hebrew “And”

¹¹ “Why did I not die at¹ birth? Why did I not come forth from the womb and expire?

1. Literally “from”

¹² Why did the knees receive me and the breasts, that I could suck?

¹³ For now I would lie down, and I would be at peace; I would be asleep; then ⌞I would be at rest⌟¹

1. Literally “it would be at rest for me”

¹⁴ with kings and counselors of the earth, who ⌞rebuild⌟¹ ruins for themselves,

1. Literally “build”

¹⁵ or with high officials ⌞who have gold⌟,¹ who fill up their houses with silver.

1. Literally “gold is for them”

¹⁶ Or why was I not hidden like a miscarriage, like infants who did not see the light?

¹⁷ There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the ⌞weary⌟¹ are at rest;

1. Literally “weary of strength”

¹⁸ the prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the oppressor’s voice.

Job Wishes He Might Die

¹⁹ The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his masters.¹

1. Or “master”

²⁰ “Why does he¹ give light to one in misery and life to those bitter of soul,

1. Most likely God

²¹ who wait for death, but¹ ⌞it does not come⌟,² and search³ for it more than for treasures,

1. Hebrew “and”
2. Literally “it is not”
3. Or “dig”

²² who rejoice ⌞exceedingly⌟,¹ and they are glad when they find the grave?

1. Literally “unto rejoicing”

²³ Why does he¹ give light to a man whose way is hidden, and God has fenced him in all around?

1. Most likely God

²⁴ For¹ my sighing comes ⌞before⌟² my bread,³ and my groanings gush forth like water

1. Or perhaps emphatic, “Indeed”
2. Or “in place of” (NET); literally “to the faces of”
3. Or “food”

²⁵ because the dread that I ⌞feel⌟¹ has come upon me, and what I feared befalls me.

1. Literally “dread”

²⁶ I am not at ease, and I am not at peace, and I do not have rest, thus¹ turmoil has come.”

1. Hebrew “and”