Bible Commentaries

THE POEM OR DEBATE ITSELF

(Job 3:2-42:6).

FIRST SERIES IN IT

(Job 3:1-14:22).

JOB FIRST

(Job 3:1-26).

Job 3:1-19.

JOB CURSES THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH AND WISHES FOR DEATH.

1. opened his mouth--The Orientals speak seldom, and then sententiously; hence this formula expressing deliberation and gravity

(Ps 78:2).

He formally began.

cursed his day--the strict Hebrew word for "cursing:" not the same as in

Job 1:5.

Job cursed his birthday, but not his God.

2. spake--Hebrew, "answered," that is, not to any actual question that preceded, but to the question virtually involved in the case. His outburst is singularly wild and bold

(Jer 20:14).

To desire to die so as to be free from sin is a mark of grace; to desire to die so as to escape troubles is a mark of corruption. He was ill-fitted to die who was so unwilling to live. But his trials were greater, and his light less, than ours.

3. the night in which--rather "the night which said." The words in italics are not in the Hebrew. Night is personified and poetically made to speak. So in

Job 3:7,

and in

Ps 19:2.

The birth of a male in the East is a matter of joy; often not so of a female.

4. let not God regard it--rather, more poetically, "seek it out." "Let not God stoop from His bright throne to raise it up from its dark hiding-place." The curse on the day in

Job 3:3,

is amplified in

Job 3:4, 5;

that on the night, in

Job 3:6-10.

5. Let . . . the shadow of death--("deepest darkness,"

Isa 9:2).

stain it--This is a later sense of the verb [GESENIUS]; better the old and more poetic idea, "Let darkness (the ancient night of chaotic gloom) resume its rights over light

(Ge 1:2),

and claim that day as its own."

a cloud--collectively, a gathered mass of dark clouds.

the blackness of the day terrify it--literally, "the obscurations"; whatever darkens the day [GESENIUS]. The verb in Hebrew expresses sudden terrifying. May it be suddenly affrighted at its own darkness. UMBREIT explains it as "magical incantations that darken the day," forming the climax to the previous clauses;

Job 3:8

speaks of "cursers of the day" similarly. But the former view is simpler. Others refer it to the poisonous simoom wind.

6. seize upon it--as its prey, that is, utterly dissolve it.

joined unto the days of the year--rather, by poetic personification, "Let it not rejoice in the circle of days and nights and months, which form the circle of years."

7. solitary--rather, "unfruitful." "Would that it had not given birth to me."

8. them . . . curse the day--If "mourning" be the right rendering in the latter clause of this verse, these words refer to the hired mourners of the dead

(Jer 9:17).

But the Hebrew for "mourning" elsewhere always denotes an animal, whether it be the crocodile or some huge serpent

(Isa 27:1),

such as is meant by "leviathan." Therefore, the expression, "cursers of day," refers to magicians, who were believed to be able by charms to make a day one of evil omen. (So Balaam,

Nu 22:5).

This accords with UMBREIT'S view

(Job 3:7);

or to the Ethiopians and Atlantes, who "used to curse the sun at his rising for burning up them and their country" [HERODOTUS]. Necromancers claimed power to control or rouse wild beasts at will, as do the Indian serpent-charmers of our day

(Ps 58:5).

Job does not say they had the power they claimed; but, supposing they had, may they curse the day. SCHUTTENS renders it by supplying words as follows:--Let those that are ready for anything, call it (the day) the raiser up of leviathan, that is, of a host of evils.