3 Let the day H3117 perish H6 wherein I was born, H3205 and the night H3915 in which it was said, H559 There is a man child H1397 conceived. H2029
Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth H3318 out of the womb? H7358 Oh that I had given up the ghost, H1478 and no eye H5869 had seen H7200 me! I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried H2986 from the womb H990 to the grave. H6913
Cursed H779 be the day H3117 wherein I was born: H3205 let not the day H3117 wherein my mother H517 bare H3205 me be blessed. H1288 Cursed H779 be the man H376 who brought tidings H1319 to my father, H1 saying, H559 A man H2145 child H1121 is born H3205 unto thee; making him very H8055 glad. H8055 And let that man H376 be as the cities H5892 which the LORD H3068 overthrew, H2015 and repented H5162 not: and let him hear H8085 the cry H2201 in the morning, H1242 and the shouting H8643 at noontide; H6256 H6672 Because he slew H4191 me not from the womb; H7358 or that my mother H517 might have been my grave, H6913 and her womb H7358 to be always H5769 great H2030 with me. Wherefore came I forth H3318 out of the womb H7358 to see H7200 labour H5999 and sorrow, H3015 that my days H3117 should be consumed H3615 with shame? H1322
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 3
Commentary on Job 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
"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 2), 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,
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 thinks he stands may take heed lest he fall.
Job 3:1-10
Long was Job's heart hot within him; and, while he was musing, the fire burned, and the more for being stifled and suppressed. At length he spoke with his tongue, but not such a good word as David spoke after a long pause: Lord, make me to know my end, Ps. 39:3, 4. Seven days the prophet Ezekiel sat down astonished with the captives, and then (probably on the sabbath day) the word of the Lord came to him, Eze. 3:15, 16. So long Job and his friends sat thinking, but said nothing; they were afraid of speaking what they thought, lest they should grieve him, and he durst not give vent to his thoughts, lest he should offend them. They came to comfort him, but, finding his afflictions very extraordinary, they began to think comfort did not belong to him, suspecting him to be a hypocrite, and therefore they said nothing. But losers think they may have leave to speak, and therefore Job first gives vent to his thoughts. Unless they had been better, it would however have been well if he had kept them to himself. In short, he cursed his day, the day of his birth, wished he had never been born, could not think or speak of his own birth without regret and vexation. Whereas men usually observe the annual return of their birth-day with rejoicing, he looked upon it as the unhappiest day of the year, because the unhappiest of his life, being the inlet into all his woe. Now,
Job 3:11-19
Job, perhaps reflecting upon himself for his folly in wishing he had never been born, follows it, and thinks to mend it, with another, little better, that he had died as soon as he was born, which he enlarges upon in these verses. When our Saviour would set forth a very calamitous state of things he seems to allow such a saying as this, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the paps which never gave suck (Lu. 23:29); but blessing the barren womb is one thing and cursing the fruitful womb is another! It is good to make the best of afflictions, but it is not good to make the worst of mercies. Our rule is, Bless, and curse not. Life is often put for all good, and death for all evil; yet Job here very absurdly complains of life and its supports as a curse and plague to him, and covets death and the grave as the greatest and most desirable bliss. Surely Satan was deceived in Job when he applied that maxim to him, All that a man hath will he give for his life; for never any man valued life at a lower rate than he did.
Job 3:20-26
Job, finding it to no purpose to wish either that he had not been born or had died as soon as he was born, here complains that his life was now continued and not cut off. When men are set on quarrelling there is no end of it; the corrupt heart will carry on the humour. Having cursed the day of his birth, here he courts the day of his death. The beginning of this strife and impatience is as the letting forth of water.