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"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 (Job 1:1-2:13), 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, I. Complaining that he was born, Job 3:1-10. II. Complaining that he did not die as soon as he was born, Job 3:11-19. III. Complaining that his life was now continued when he was in misery, Job 3:20-26. 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.
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Job Curses His Day (1520 BC)
简体中文
约伯咒诅自己的生日（公元前1520年）
¹ 此后，约伯开口咒诅自己的生日， ² 说： ³ 愿我生的那日灭亡，说"男童受了孕"的那夜也灭没。 ⁴ 愿那日变为黑暗；愿神不从上面寻找它，愿亮光不照于其上。 ⁵ 愿黑暗和死荫索讨那日；愿密云停留在其上；愿白日的黑暗惊吓它。 ⁶ 至于那夜，愿黑暗攫取它；不在年日的数目之中，不入月份的数内。 ⁷ 看哪，愿那夜孤寂，无一欢乐之声进入其中。 ⁸ 愿那咒诅日子、能惹动鳄鱼的，咒诅它。 ⁹ 愿它黄昏的星辰黑暗；它指望亮光，却得不着；也不见早晨的眼目： ¹⁰ 因为它没有关闭我母腹的门，也没有将忧伤掩蔽不使我的眼看见。
约伯的心中长久火热；他默想之时，火便燃烧，且因被压抑窒息而烧得更旺。终于他用舌头说话了，却不像大卫经过长久沉默之后所说的那番善言："耶和华啊，求你叫我晓得我终身之数"（诗 39:3-4）。先知以西结与被掳之人同坐惊愕了七日，然后（大概在安息日）耶和华的话临到他（结 3:15-16）。约伯和他的朋友们也如此坐着思想，却一言不发；他们 不敢说出心中所想，唯恐伤了他；他 也不敢吐露心思，唯恐冒犯他们。他们来本是要安慰他，但见他的苦难非同寻常，便开始以为安慰与他无分，怀疑他是假冒为善之人，因此一言不发。然而受苦之人自以为总有说话的权利，于是约伯率先吐露心思。这些心思若能更好一些，他若把它们留给自己，倒还算好。简而言之——他咒诅自己的日子，咒诅自己出生的那日，巴不得自己从未生在世上；一想到、一说到自己的出生，便充满懊悔与烦恼。人们通常以欢乐记念每年生日的循环，他反将那日视为一年中最不幸的日子，因为那是他一生中最不幸的一日，也是他一切祸患的入口。如今——
I\. 这是够糟的了。他苦难之极、心神之乱，或许可在某种程度上作为借口，但他在这事上断不能算为无罪。如今他忘了自己生来所得的福分——瘦弱的母牛吞吃了肥壮的——他满心所想的只是灾祸，巴不得自己从未出生。先知耶利米自己也曾用与此颇为相似的语言，表达他对灾祸痛苦的感受："我有祸了，我的母亲，你为何生我！"（耶 15:10）。"愿我生的那日受咒诅"（耶 20:14 等）。我们可以设想，约伯在兴旺之时，曾多少次为生日称颂神，将那日算为有福之日；然而如今他却以一切能想到的恶名加于其上。当我们想到自己在其中受孕、出生的罪孽，便有充足的理由以忧愁羞愧之心回顾自己出生的那日，并说我们 解脱罪恶 的 死之日（罗 6:7）远为 美好（传 7:1）。但因为我们步入人生这一多灾多难的舞台，便咒诅自己出生的那日，却是在与造化之主争辩，轻看我们存在的尊严，并放纵一种连我们自己冷静清醒的思想也会使我们为之羞愧的情感。诚然，人在这世上所能处的任何境遇之中，只要不是他自己的过失，他都可以（在其中）荣耀神，作成自己得救的工夫，为自己在更好的世界里确保一份福乐——因此他毫无理由希望自己从未出生，倒大有理由说自己不枉此生。但必须承认，若今生之外没有来世，若没有属神的安慰在来世的展望中扶持我们，今世的忧愁患难如此之多，我们有时难免受诱惑说我们是 徒然被造（诗 89:47），巴不得自己从未出生。地狱中有些人有充分理由希望自己从未出生，如犹大（太 26:24）。但地狱这边，却不可能有理由作如此虚妄忘恩的愿望。咒诅自己的日子，是约伯的愚妄与软弱。我们当说：这是他的软弱；但义人有时也在他们最为杰出的恩赐之操练上失败，好叫我们明白，他们被称为 完全 乃是指他们正直，并非说他们无罪。最后，让我们留意一事，以彰显属灵生命之胜于天然生命——虽有许多人咒诅他们第一次出生的那日，却从未有人咒诅自己重生的那日，也从未有人巴不得自己从未得着恩典与赐恩的圣灵。那些才是最卓越的恩赐，胜过生命与存在本身，也永不会成为重担。
II\. 然而也并非如撒但自己所期望的那般糟。约伯咒诅了自己的日子，却没有咒诅他的神——他厌弃了自己的性命，甘愿舍弃它，却未厌弃自己的信仰；他坚决持守它，永不放松。神与撒但之间关于约伯的争辩，并不在于约伯是否有他的软弱、是否与我们同受情感的支配（那是已经承认的），而在于他是否是一个暗中恨神的假冒为善之人，一旦被激怒便要显出他的恨意；经过试炼，事实证明他绝非这样的人。不，这一切甚至可以与他是忍耐的榜样相一致；因为虽然他如此口不择言，但他在之前和之后都表达了对神圣旨意极大的顺服与交托，并为他自己的急躁懊悔；他为此自责，所以神不定他的罪，我们也不可如此，倒当更加谨慎地看守自己，免得我们也犯类似的罪。
1\. 约伯在咒诅自己日子时所用的具体言辞，充满了诗意的想象、火焰般的激情与飞扬的辞藻，给注释家带来的难处，正如事物本身给神学家带来的难处一样；我们不必逐一细论。当他要表达自己巴不得从未出生的强烈愿望时，他便迁怒于那日，巴不得——
(1.) 大地忘记它：愿它灭亡（伯 3:3）；愿它不在年日的数目之中（伯 3:6）。"愿它不仅不被以红字载入日历——如君王诞辰通常所行的那样（而约伯乃是一位君王，伯 29:25）——更愿它被涂抹、被勾销、被埋没于遗忘之中。愿世人不知道曾有像我这样的人生于此世、活于此世——我竟成了如此悲惨的一幕。"
(2.) 天上向它皱眉：愿神不从上面寻找它（伯 3:4）。"万事确实在于神如何待它；那日之所以尊贵，是因他赐尊贵于它，因他赐恩宠与祝福将它分别出来、加以加冕——正如他对待一周的第七日；但愿我的生日永不得如此尊荣；愿它被那位预定时候的主 用黑炭标记 为凶日。众光之父设立了较大的光管昼、较小的光管夜；但愿那日两者之益处俱失。"
[1.] 愿那日变为黑暗（伯 3:4）；白昼之光若变为黑暗，那黑暗是何等大呢！ 何等可畏！因为我们正期盼光明。愿那日的阴郁代表约伯的境况——他的日头在正午落下。
[2.] 至于那夜，愿它也失却月亮与星辰的益处，愿黑暗攫取它——幽暗的黑暗，可以摸到的黑暗，它不会因其寂静而助益夜的安息，反倒以其恐怖扰乱安息。
(3.) 一切欢乐离开它："愿它成为一个忧郁之夜、孤寂之夜，而非音乐舞蹈的欢乐之夜。愿无一欢乐之声进入其中（伯 3:7）；愿它是一个漫长的夜，不见早晨的眼目（伯 3:9），因为早晨的眼目带来欢乐。"
(4.) 一切咒诅追随它（伯 3:8）："愿无人愿意看见它，它在来到之时无人欢迎它，反倒，愿那咒诅日子的咒诅它。无论何日有人受试探咒诅，愿他们同时为我的生日献上一咒，尤其那些以在丧礼上唱哀歌招人哭泣为业的人。愿那些咒诅他人死日的人，在同一口气中也咒诅我的生日。" 或指那些凶猛大胆、敢于招惹 鳄鱼（因这正是此处所用的词）的人——他们既要去击打鲸鱼或鳄鱼，便以所能发明的最恶毒的咒诅咒骂它，盼望借着咒语削弱它，从而制伏它。或许当时确有此种风俗，我们的圣经诗人便是以此为暗喻。"愿它如 人哀悼最大灾祸之日 一般可憎，或如 人看见最可怕异象之时 一般可憎；" 帕特里克主教如此解读，他大概把此处的鳄鱼解作魔鬼——也有其他人如此解，他们将此句理解为巫师与术士在招魔之时、或招出之后无法遣走之时所用的咒语。
2\. 然而约伯为何要与他自己出生的日和夜争吵呢？因为那日没有关闭他母腹的门（伯 3:10）。请看一种暴躁不满之情的愚妄与疯狂——当缰绳松开任它驰骋之时，它说话是何等荒唐、何等离谱。这岂是约伯吗？他因智慧被人敬重，以至于 人等候他如等候雨露，又敞口倾听他的谋略，他说完之后人不再发言（伯 29:21-22）？他的智慧确然失效了——
(1.) 当他如此费力地表达自己巴不得从未出生的愿望——这充其量不过是虚妄的愿望，因为已经发生的事不可能变为未曾发生。
(2.) 当他如此大方地把咒诅挥霍在一日一夜之上——而那些日与夜并不能因他的咒诅受丝毫损害，也不能变得分毫更糟。
(3.) 当他愿望一件对亲生母亲如此残忍的事——巴不得她到了足月却没有生下他，而这必然是她死亡之日，且是悲惨的死亡。
(4.) 当他轻看了神赐他存在的恩典（如此的存在——如此高贵卓越的生命，如此的生命——远超这下方世界中任何其他受造之物的生命），又看轻了这份恩赐，以为不配接受——只因为 它附带条件——它附有忧愁的条款；而那忧愁直到他享受了多年欢乐之后才终于临到。愿自己的眼睛从未见过光，免得看见忧愁——这是何等愚蠢！他本可以盼望穿过忧愁看见忧愁那边的喜乐！约伯既信且望自己 在末了之日要在肉身之中见神（伯 19:26），却只因目前肉身中有忧愁，便宁愿自己从未拥有一个能够承受如此福乐的生命？愿神以他的恩典保守我们，抵挡这愚妄有害的不耐之欲。
영문 원문
Job Curses His Day (1520 BC)
¹ After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
² And Job spake, and said,
³ Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
⁴ Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
⁵ Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
⁶ As 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.
⁷ Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.
⁸ Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
⁹ Let 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:
¹⁰ Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
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,
I. This was bad enough. The extremity of his trouble and the discomposure of his spirits may excuse it in part, but he can by no means be justified in it. Now he has forgotten the good he was born to, the lean kine have eaten up the fat ones, and he is filled with thoughts of the evil only, and wishes he had never been born. The prophet Jeremiah himself expressed his painful sense of his calamities in language not much unlike this: Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me! Jer 15:10. Cursed be the day wherein I was born, Jer 20:14, etc. We may suppose that Job in his prosperity had many a time blessed God for the day of his birth, and reckoned it a happy day; yet now he brands it with all possible marks of infamy. When we consider the iniquity in which we were conceived and born we have reason enough to reflect with sorrow and shame upon the day of our birth, and to say that the day of our death, by which we are freed from sin (Ro 6:7), is far better. Ec 7:1. But to curse the day of our birth because then we entered upon the calamitous scene of life is to quarrel with the God of nature, to despise the dignity of our being, and to indulge a passion which our own calm and sober thoughts will make us ashamed of. Certainly there is no condition of life a man can be in in this world but he may in it (if it be not his own fault) so honour God, and work out his own salvation, and make sure a happiness for himself in a better world, that he will have no reason at all to wish he had never been born, but a great deal of reason to say that he had his being to good purpose. Yet it must be owned, if there were not another life after this, and divine consolations to support us in the prospect of it, so many are the sorrows and troubles of this that we might sometimes be tempted to say that we were made in vain (Ps 89:47), and to wish we had never been. There are those in hell who with good reason wish they had never been born, as Judas, Mt 26:24. But, on this side hell, there can be no reason for so vain and ungrateful a wish. It was Job's folly and weakness to curse his day. We must say of it, This was his infirmity; but good men have sometimes failed in the exercise of those graces which they have been most eminent for, that we may understand that when they are said to be perfect it is meant that they were upright, not that they were sinless. Lastly, Let us observe it, to the honour of the spiritual life above the natural, that though many have cursed the day of their first birth, never any cursed the day of their new-birth, nor wished they never had had grace, and the Spirit of grace, given them. Those are the most excellent gifts, above life and being itself, and which will never be a burden.
II. Yet it was not so bad as Satan promised himself. Job cursed his day, but he did not curse his God—was weary of his life, and would gladly have parted with that, but not weary of his religion; he resolutely cleaves to that, and will never let it go. The dispute between God and Satan concerning Job was not whether Job had his infirmities, and whether he was subject to like passions as we are (that was granted), but whether he was a hypocrite, who secretly hated God, and if he were provoked, would show his hatred; and, upon trial, it proved that he was no such man. Nay, all this may consist with his being a pattern of patience; for, though he did thus speak unadvisedly with his lips, yet both before and after he expressed great submission and resignation to the holy will of God and repented of his impatience; he condemned himself for it, and therefore God did not condemn him, nor must we, but watch the more carefully over ourselves, lest we sin after the similitude of this transgression.
1. The particular expressions which Job used in cursing his day are full of poetical fancy, flame, and rapture, and create as much difficulty to the critics as the thing itself does to the divines: we need not be particular in our observations upon them. When he would express his passionate wish that he had never been, he falls foul upon the day, and wishes,
(1.) That earth might forget it: Let it perish (Job 3:3); let it not be joined to the days of the year, Job 3:6. "Let it be not only not inserted in the calendar in red letters, as the day of the king's nativity useth to be" (and Job was a king, Job 29:25), "but let it be erased and blotted out, and buried in oblivion. Let not the world know that ever such a man as I was born into it, and lived in it, who am made such a spectacle of misery."
(2.) That Heaven might frown upon it: Let not God regard it from above, Job 3:4. "Every thing is indeed as it is with God; that day is honourable on which he puts honour, and which he distinguishes and crowns with his favour and blessing, as he did the seventh day of the week; but let my birthday never be so honoured; let it be nigro carbone notandus—marked as with a black coal for an evil day by him that determines the times before appointed. The father and fountain of light appointed the greater light to rule the day and the less lights to rule the night; but let that want the benefit of both." [1.] Let that day be darkness (Job 3:4); and, if the light of the day be darkness, how great is that darkness! how terrible! because then we look for light. Let the gloominess of the day represent Job's condition, whose sun went down at noon. [2.] As for that night too, let it want the benefit of moon and stars, and let darkness seize upon it, thick darkness, darkness that may be felt, which will not befriend the repose of the night by its silence, but rather disturb it with its terrors.
(3.) That all joy might forsake it: "Let it be a melancholy night, solitary, and not a merry night of music and dancing. Let no joyful voice come therein (Job 3:7); let it be a long night, and not see the eye-lids of the morning (Job 3:9), which bring joy with them."
(4.) That all curses might follow it (Job 3:8): "Let none ever desire to see it, or bid it welcome when it comes, but, on the contrary, let those curse it that curse the day. Whatever day any are tempted to curse, let them at the same time bestow one curse upon my birth-day, particularly those that make it their trade to raise up mourning at funerals with their ditties of lamentation. Let those that curse the day of the death of others in the same breath curse the day of my birth." Or those who are so fierce and daring as to be ready to raise up the Leviathan (for that is the word here), who, being about to strike the whale or crocodile, curse it with the bitterest curse they can invent, hoping by their incantations to weaken it, and so to make themselves master of it. Probably some such custom might there be used, to which our divine poet alludes. "Let it be as odious as the day wherein men bewail the greatest misfortune, or the time wherein they see the most dreadful apparition;" so bishop Patrick, I suppose taking the Leviathan here to signify the devil, as others do, who understand it of the curses used by conjurors and magicians in raising the devil, or when they have raised a devil that they cannot lay.
2. But what is the ground of Job's quarrel with the day and night of his birth? It is because it shut not up the doors of his mother's womb, Job 3:10. See the folly and madness of a passionate discontent, and how absurdly and extravagantly it talks when the reins are laid on the neck of it. Is this Job, who was so much admired for his wisdom that unto him men gave ear, and kept silence at his counsel, and after his words they spoke not again? Job 29:21,22. Surely his wisdom failed him, (1.) When he took so much pains to express his desire that he had never been born, which, at the best was a vain wish, for it is impossible to make that which has been not to have been. (2.) When he was so liberal of his curses upon a day and a night that could not be hurt, or made any the worse for his curses. (3.) When he wished a thing so very barbarous to his own mother as that she had not brought him forth when her full time had come, which must inevitably have been her death, and a miserable death. (4.) When he despised the goodness of God to him in giving him a being (such a being, so noble and excellent a life, such a life, so far above that of any other creature in this lower world), and undervalued the gift, as not worth the acceptance, only because transit cum onere—it was clogged with a proviso of trouble, which now at length came upon him, after many years' enjoyment of its pleasures. What a foolish thing it was to wish that his eyes had never seen the light, that so they might not have seen sorrow, which yet he might hope to see through, and beyond which he might see joy! Did Job believe and hope that he should in his flesh see God at the latter day (Job 19:26), and yet would he wish he had never had a being capable of such a bliss, only because, for the present, he had sorrow in the flesh? God by his grace arm us against this foolish and hurtful lust of impatience.
11-26
Job's Complaint of Life (1520 BC)
简体中文
约伯抱怨生命（1520 BC）
¹¹ 我为何不出母胎而死？为何不出母腹绝气？ ¹² 为何有膝接收我？为何有奶哺养我？ ¹³ 不然，我早就躺卧安睡； ¹⁴ 与地上为自己造荒邱的君王、谋士同卧； ¹⁵ 或与有金子、满屋装满银子的王子同安； ¹⁶ 或像隐而未现、不到期而落的胎，归于无有；如同未见光的婴孩。 ¹⁷ 在那里恶人止息搅扰，困乏人得享安息； ¹⁸ 被囚的人同得安逸，不听见督工的声音。 ¹⁹ 大小都在那里；奴仆脱离主人的辖制。
约伯也许是因自己愿未生在世上的愚妄而反省，便随之又以另一不遑多让的愿望——巴不得一出母腹便死——继续这话，并在以下数节中加以发挥。当救主要描绘一种极悲惨的境况时，似乎容许这样的话：「不生育的和未怀胎的，有福了！未尝过哺乳滋味的，有福了！」（路 23:29）；然而为不孕的胎称福是一回事，咒诅结果子的胎又是一回事！在苦难中尽力看其善固好，但在怜悯中尽看其恶则不好。我们的规矩是：「只要祝福，不可咒诅。」生命常被用来指一切的美福，死亡被用来指一切的灾祸；但约伯在此十分荒谬地抱怨生命及其支持，视之如对自己的咒诅和灾殃，却贪求死亡与坟墓为至大至可羡慕的福乐。撒但把那句格言用在约伯身上——「他一切都所有的，都肯舍了救自己的性命」——实在是被他欺骗了；因为再无一人比约伯把性命看得更轻。
一、他忘恩地与生命相争，发怒自己一得生命未被立刻收回（伯 3:11-12）：「我为何不出母胎而死？」请看，1. 人来到世上时是何等软弱无助的生物，生命的丝线刚被抽出时是何等纤细。我们从母腹出来便已濒死，一开始呼吸便几乎要断气。我们不能像别的受造物那样为自己作什么，若没有膝接收我们，便会落在坟墓里；生命之灯初次点亮，若没有赐我们、当吸吮的奶为它源源供油，便会自行熄灭。2. 神的旨意在我们入世之初对我们有何等怜悯温柔的看顾。我们所以「不出母胎而死」、「不出母腹绝气」，正因如此。我们为何不一出生便被剪除？并非因为我们不该。这样的杂草本可一显露便被拔起；这样的毒蛇本可在蛋中被压碎。也并非因为我们能为自己的安全作什么照管：再无受造物如人这般无措地来到世间。我们这些性命得以保全，「并不是因我们的力量、我们手的能力」，乃是神的大能与旨意扶持了我们脆弱的生命，祂的怜悯与忍耐宽免了我们已失丧的生命。膝之所以接收我们，正因如此。天然的亲情是由自然之神亲手放在父母心里的；因此母乳的福分随胎产的福分而来。3. 人生在世有多少虚空与烦恼。我们若没有在这个世界当事奉的神，在另一个世界无可盼望的更美之事，则鉴于我们所得的才能、所遭的患难，必大受试探，巴不得「出母胎而死」——这能避免许多罪与苦。
- 不耐、烦躁与不满之恶。它们一旦得势，便既不合理不合情，又不敬虔不知恩。任其滋长，便是轻看低估神的恩惠。无论生命被何等苦涩所浸染，我们都当说：「我们不出母胎而死，我们未被消灭，乃是因耶和华的诸般怜悯。」恨恶生命，是与人共通的感觉见解相抵触，也与我们自己在任何别的时候的感觉相抵触。让不满的人对生命发多少牢骚都好，到紧要关头他们仍不肯放手。寓言中的老人既因挑担疲倦，便不满地把担子摔下，呼求死亡；死亡来到他面前，问他要什么；他便答道：「别无所求，只求帮我挑起担子。」
二、他激情地赞美死亡与坟墓，似乎对之十分爱慕。愿死以致能与基督同在，以致脱离罪，以致「穿上从天上来的房屋」，乃是恩典的果效与凭据；但愿死只为在坟墓里得安息，只为脱离今生的烦恼，则带有败坏的味道。约伯在此的思量，于死亡临到时帮助我们与死亡和好、在死亡的逮捕之下使我们安然，可有好的用处；但不可借为借口，在生命仍延续时与生命相争，或在生命重担之下使我们不安。我们的智慧与本分，是无论处于何种境况——或活或死——都尽力看其善，如此便「或活或死总是主的人」，在两者中都属于祂（罗 14:8）。约伯在此处苦待自己，心想：他若一出母腹便死，从母腹被抬到坟墓，1. 他的境况便与最好的人一样好：他便（如他所说，伯 3:14）「与地上的君王、谋士」在一起——他们的显赫、权势与谋略都不能使他们脱离死亡的范围，不能保守他们免入坟墓，也不能在坟墓中把他们的尘土与普通的尘土分别出来。即使富甲一方的君王，也不能在死亡带着命令而来时贿赂它略过他们；他们虽「满屋装满银子」，仍不得不全数留下，再也不能回来。此处所谓君王谋士「为自己造荒邱」，有人理解为他们在生前为自己预备的坟墓或纪念碑，如舍伯那（赛 22:16）「为自己凿出坟墓」；所谓王子所有的金、他们装满房屋的银，则理解为据说是常放在伟人坟墓中的财宝。人曾用这样的手段来在死亡的那边保守自己的尊严，如有可能，并避免与下级之人平躺；但终归无用：死亡是、也必是不可抗拒的平等者。「死亡使王杖与铲子相等。」在坟墓中「富人与穷人彼此相遇」；在那里，「隐而未现、不到期而落的胎」（伯 3:16），即那从未见过光、或仅一开眼向世上瞥见、因不喜欢便又闭眼急忙出去的婴孩，与有金的君王、谋士、王子，躺卧得一样柔软、一样高而安稳。「所以，」约伯说，「我宁愿躺在那里的尘土中，胜过躺在此处的炉灰里！」2. 他的境况便远比如今好得多（伯 3:13）：「『那时我早已躺卧安睡；我早已得享安息』，如今却不能这样行，不能这样在，反而不断辗转不安；那时我早已睡了，如今睡眠却离我眼；那时我早已安息，如今我却毫无安息。」如今生命与不朽已借福音比从前更为清晰地显明，敬虔的基督徒能比此处更好地说明死亡之得着：「那时我便与主同在；那时我便要面对面见祂的荣耀，不再隔着镜子模糊不清了。」但可怜的约伯所梦想的，不过是坟墓中的安息与宁静——脱离恶信的恐惧，脱离毒疮的痛苦。「那时我早已得着安静」；他若保持他那种平静从容的心境——如前两章所记，他完全顺服神的圣洁旨意、以之为满足——如今他也可以安静；至少他的灵魂可以安居于舒适之中，纵然身体卧于痛苦（诗 25:13）。请看他怎样精妙地描述坟墓中的安息——这一点（前提是灵魂也在神里得安息）能大大帮助我们胜过死亡。（1）如今受搅扰的，在那里便脱离搅扰所及（伯 3:17）：「在那里恶人止息搅扰。」逼迫者死时便不能再逼迫；他们的「仇恨嫉妒」便「都消灭」了。希律曾搅扰教会，但当他成了虫子的食物，便止息了搅扰。受逼迫者死时，便脱离了再被搅扰的危险。约伯若在坟墓里得享安息，便不再受示巴人、迦勒底人的搅扰，他一切的仇敌都不能再给他添麻烦。（2）如今劳苦的，在那里便看见其劳苦的尽头。「在那里困乏人得享安息。」天对圣徒之灵而言，是过于安息之处；但坟墓对他们的身体而言是安息之处。他们的朝圣之路是疲乏的朝圣之路；他们所厌倦的，是罪与世界；他们所疲于的，是服事、受苦与盼望；但在坟墓里他们便「从一切劳苦中得安息」（启 14:13；赛 57:2）。他们在那里安然，毫无怨言；信徒在那里在耶稣里睡了。（3）在此为奴的，在那里便得自由。死亡是囚犯的释放、受欺压者的解脱、仆人的免奴（伯 3:18）：「在那里被囚的人」虽不得自由行走，却「同得安逸」，并不被迫在那监牢里推磨做工。他们不再被残忍的督工辱骂践踏、威吓恐吓：「不听见督工的声音。」那些在此被判终身为奴、连自己的身体都不能称为己有的人，在那里便不再受命令管辖：「在那里奴仆脱离主人的辖制」——这是有力的理由，叫有权的当用权适度，叫在权下的当忍耐担待片刻。（4）在此与人相距遥远的，在那里便同等（伯 3:19）：「大小都在那里」，在那里一样，在那里都成一，都在死人中同等自由。那随伟人而起的冗长排场，在那里便终止；那贫穷卑微之境的一切不便，在那里也都过去；死亡与坟墓不知分别。
²⁰ 受患难的人为何有光赐给他呢？心中愁苦的人为何有生命赐给他呢？ ²¹ 他们切望死，却不得死；求死胜于求隐藏的珍宝； ²² 他们寻见坟墓，就欢喜快乐，甚是欢呼吗？ ²³ 这人为何有光赐给他呢？他的道路隐藏，神又四面围困他。 ²⁴ 我未曾吃饭，就发出叹息；我的唉哼如水涌流出来。 ²⁵ 因我所恐惧的临到我身；我所惧怕的，向我而来。 ²⁶ 我不得安逸，不得平静，也不得安息；却有患难来到。
约伯既知愿未生在世上、或一出母腹便死都是徒然，便在此抱怨自己的性命仍被延续而不被剪除。人既决意相争，便无止境；败坏的心必继续这脾性。他既咒诅自己生之日，便在此又向自己死之日求情。这争端与不耐之始，如同放水一般。
一、他普遍地以为，愁苦之人寿命被延长，乃是苛刻（伯 3:20-22）：「为何有光、有生命赐给那心中愁苦的人？」灵性上的忧伤使心中愁苦，连生命本身也成为苦。原文是「他为何赐光？」他指神，却未点名，虽然魔鬼曾说：「他必当面咒诅你」；但他隐然指责神的旨意不公不仁——既除去生命的安慰，却仍延续生命。生命被称为「光」，因其令人愉快，便于行走做工。它是烛光；越烧越短，越近烛台。这光被称为「赐给」我们的；因为若不每日借新鲜的恩赐向我们更新，便会失去。但约伯以为对受苦之人而言，那是「礼物又非礼物」——他们宁可没有的礼物；光只帮助他们看见自己的苦难。人生之虚空如此，有时竟成为烦恼；而死亡的性质如此可变——虽对天性可畏，竟也能对天性本身成为可羡。他此处说到的人，1. 切望死亡——他们已活过了自己的安慰与用处，被老迈衰弱、病痛、贫穷或羞辱所压，死亡却迟迟不来；而同时，死亡却临到许多怕它、要远离它的人。寿命的延续与终结，必须照神的旨意，不照我们的。我们当被咨询要活多久、何时死，并不相宜；我们的时辰在比我们自己更好的手中。2. 「求死胜于求隐藏的珍宝」，意即愿付任何代价以求安然离开这个世界——这假定「那时」人想自杀的念头尚未被人思量或提起，否则切望死亡的人不必费多大力气，便可轻易得之（如塞涅卡告诉他们的那样），只要他们愿意。3. 欢迎死亡，「寻见坟墓就欢喜快乐」，见自己踏进其中便为乐。若今生的苦难能违背天性使死亡本身成为可羡，那么对一个更美生命——死亡乃是我们进入它的过道——的盼望与远景，岂不更使它如此，并使我们完全不再怕它？渴慕死亡或是罪，但我确知渴慕天堂不是罪。
二、他特别觉得自己受了苛待——他既不能以别法得舒解，便不能借死亡减轻自己的痛苦烦恼。因所遇烦恼而不耐生命，不仅本身不合天性，更是对赐生命者忘恩，并且证明自己在激情上有罪，对未来境界有罪过的不加思量。让我们以预备到另一个世界为最大、最一贯的关怀，然后把迁居的境况交托给神按祂看为合宜的方式安排：「主啊，何时、如何随你所喜悦」；并且抱着这种无差别的态度，祂若把这交给我们决定，我们仍要把它交还祂。恩典教导我们在生命最大安慰之中情愿死，在生命最大十字架之下情愿活。约伯为他在这一求死的恳切愿望上为自己开脱，便陈述他在生命中所得的安慰与满足何其少。
1．他如今受苦的境况中，烦恼持续不断地被感受，且看来还要继续。他以为自己大有理由厌倦活着，因为，（1）他没有生命的安慰：「我未曾吃饭，就发出叹息」（伯 3:24）。生命的忧愁抢先于生命的支持来到，并且夺了他对必需食物的胃口。他的忧愁像饭食一样按时回来，苦难便是他日用的饮食。不但如此，他的痛苦烦恼到了极处，他不仅叹息，更是吼叫，他的「唉哼如水涌流出来」，源源不绝。我们的主曾「常经忧患」，我们也当预料如此。（2）他无改善境况的指望：「他的道路隐藏」，神又「四面围困他」（伯 3:23）。他看不见敞开的拯救之路，也不知当采何策；他的道路「用荆棘围堵」，使他寻不见路径。见伯 23:8；哀 3:7。
2．连他从前兴旺的境况中，他也不断担心烦恼；所以「那时」他从未安适（伯 3:25-26）。他对世界的虚空、对自己生来便难免的烦恼知道得如此之多，以致「他不得安逸」，那时也未曾安息。使如今的忧伤更加重的是：他在兴旺之日并未自觉有大的疏忽或安逸，以致可以惹神这样惩治他。（1）他未曾疏忽不顾自己的事，乃是一直保持那种为维持警备所必需的畏难之心。儿女宴乐时，他为他们恐怕得罪神（伯 1:5）；仆人得罪邻舍时，他也恐怕；他对自己健康尽一切所能照顾，并以一切可能的谨慎管理自己与自己的事；然而一切仍归无用。（2）他未曾安逸，未曾纵情于舒适柔媚，未曾信靠财富，未曾以「欢乐必长存」自慰；然而患难仍来到，为要使他信服并提醒他世界的虚空——这一点他在安逸度日时并未忘记。如此他的道路被隐藏，因为他不知神为何与他相争。然而这一思量，与其加重他的忧愁，不如反能减轻它。没有什么比良心的见证——我们在兴旺之日尽了自己当尽的本分——更能使患难变得易于忍受；预料患难必到，能使它来到时显得更轻。越少意外，便越少惊恐。
영문 원문
Job's Complaint of Life (1520 BC)
¹¹ Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
¹² Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
¹³ For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
¹⁴ With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;
¹⁵ Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
¹⁶ Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
¹⁷ There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.
¹⁸ There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
¹⁹ The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
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.
I. He ungratefully quarrels with life, and is angry that it was not taken from him as soon as it was given him (Job 3:11,12): Why died not I from the womb? See here, 1. What a weak and helpless creature man is when he comes into the world, and how slender the thread of life is when it is first drawn. We are ready to die from the womb, and to breathe our last as soon as we begin to breathe at all. We can do nothing for ourselves, as other creatures can, but should drop into the grave if the knees did not prevent us; and the lamp of life, when first lighted, would go out of itself if the breasts given us, that we should suck, did not supply it with fresh oil. 2. What a merciful and tender care divine Providence took of us at our entrance into the world. It was owing to this that we died not from the womb and did not give up the ghost when we came out of the belly. Why were we not cut off as soon as we were born? Not because we did not deserve it. Justly might such weeds have been plucked up as soon as they appeared; justly might such cockatrices have been crushed in the egg. Nor was it because we did, or could, take any care of ourselves and our own safety: no creature comes into the world so shiftless as man. It was not our might, or the power of our hand, that preserved us these beings, but God's power and providence upheld our frail lives, and his pity and patience spared our forfeited lives. It was owing to this that the knees prevented us. Natural affection is put into parents' hearts by the hand of the God of nature: and hence it was that the blessings of the breast attended those of the womb. 3. What a great deal of vanity and vexation of spirit attends human life. If we had not a God to serve in this world, and better things to hope for in another world, considering the faculties we are endued with and the troubles we are surrounded with, we should be strongly tempted to wish that we had died from the womb, which would have prevented a great deal both of sin and misery.
4. The evil of impatience, fretfulness, and discontent. When they thus prevail they are unreasonable and absurd, impious and ungrateful. To indulge them is a slighting and undervaluing of God's favour. How much soever life is embittered, we must say, "It was of the Lord's mercies that we died not from the womb, that we were not consumed." Hatred of life is a contradiction to the common sense and sentiments of mankind, and to our own at any other time. Let discontented people declaim ever so much against life, they will be loth to part with it when it comes to the point. When the old man in the fable, being tired with his burden, threw it down with discontent and called for Death, and Death came to him and asked him what he would have with him, he then answered, "Nothing, but to help me up with my burden."
II. He passionately applauds death and the grave, and seems quite in love with them. To desire to die that we may be with Christ, that we may be free from sin, and that we may be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, is the effect and evidence of grace; but to desire to die only that we may be quiet in the grave, and delivered from the troubles of this life, savours of corruption. Job's considerations here may be of good use to reconcile us to death when it comes, and to make us easy under the arrest of it; but they ought not to be made use of as a pretence to quarrel with life while it is continued, or to make us uneasy under the burdens of it. It is our wisdom and duty to make the best of that which is, be it living or dying, and so to live to the Lord and die to the Lord, and to be his in both, Ro 14:8. Job here frets himself with thinking that if he had but died as soon as he was born, and been carried from the womb to the grave, 1. His condition would have been as good as that of the best: I would have been (says he, Job 3:14) with kings and counsellors of the earth, whose pomp, power, and policy, cannot set them out of the reach of death, nor secure them from the grave, nor distinguish theirs from common dust in the grave. Even princes, who had gold in abundance, could not with it bribe Death to overlook them when he came with commission; and, though they filled their houses with silver, yet they were forced to leave it all behind them, no more to return to it. Some, by the desolate places which the kings and counsellors are here said to build for themselves, understand the sepulchres or monuments they prepared for themselves in their life-time; as Shebna (Isa 22:16) hewed himself out a sepulchre; and by the gold which the princes had, and the silver with which they filled their houses, they understand the treasures which, they say, it was usual to deposit in the graves of great men. Such arts have been used to preserve their dignity, if possible, on the other side death, and to keep themselves from lying even with those of inferior rank; but it will not do: death is, and will be, an irresistible leveller. Mors sceptra ligonibus æquat—Death mingles sceptres with spades. Rich and poor meet together in the grave; and there a hidden untimely birth (Job 3:16), a child that either never saw light or but just opened its eyes and peeped into the world, and, not liking it, closed them again and hastened out of it, lies as soft and easy, lies as high and safe, as kings and counsellors, and princes, that had gold. "And therefore," says Job, "would I had lain there in the dust, rather than to lie here in the ashes!" 2. His condition would have been much better than now it was (Job 3:13): "Then should I have lain still, and been quiet, which now I cannot do, I cannot be, but am still tossing and unquiet; then I should have slept, whereas now sleep departeth from my eyes; then had I been at rest, whereas now I am restless." Now that life and immortality are brought to a much clearer light by the gospel than before they were placed in good Christians can give a better account than this of the gain of death: "Then should I have been present with the Lord; then should I have seen his glory face to face, and no longer through a glass darkly." But all that poor Job dreamed of was rest and quietness in the grave out of the fear of evil tidings and out of the feeling of sore boils. Then should I have been quiet; and had he kept his temper, his even easy temper still, which he was in as recorded in the two foregoing chapters, entirely resigned to the holy will of God and acquiescing in it, he might have been quiet now; his soul, at least, might have dwelt at ease, even when his body lay in pain, Ps 25:13. Observe how finely he describes the repose of the grave, which (provided the soul also be at rest in God) may much assist our triumphs over it. (1.) Those that now are troubled will there be out of the reach of trouble (Job 3:17): There the wicked cease from troubling. When persecutors die they can no longer persecute; their hatred and envy will then perish. Herod had vexed the church, but, when he became a prey for worms, he ceased from troubling. When the persecuted die they are out of the danger of being any further troubled. Had Job been at rest in his grave, he would have had no disturbance from the Sabeans and Chaldeans, none of all his enemies would have created him any trouble. (2.) Those that are now toiled will there see the period of their toils. There the weary are at rest. Heaven is more than a rest to the souls of the saints, but the grave is a rest to their bodies. Their pilgrimage is a weary pilgrimage; sin and the world they are weary of; their services, sufferings, and expectations, they are wearied with; but in the grave they rest from all their labours, Re 14:13, Isa 57:23. They are easy there, and make no complaints; there believers sleep in Jesus. (3.) Those that were here enslaved are there at liberty. Death is the prisoner's discharge, the relief of the oppressed, and the servant's manumission (Job 3:18): There the prisoners, though they walk not at large, yet they rest together, and are not put to work, to grind in that prison-house. They are no more insulted and trampled upon, menaced and terrified, by their cruel task-masters: They hear not the voice of the oppressor. Those that were here doomed to perpetual servitude, that could call nothing their own, no, not their own bodies, are there no longer under command or control: There the servant is free from his master, which is a good reason why those that have power should use it moderately, and those that are in subjection should bear it patiently, yet a little while. (4.) Those that were at a vast distance from others are there upon a level (Job 3:19): The small and great are there, there the same, there all one, all alike free among the dead. The tedious pomp and state which attend the great are at an end there. All the inconveniences of a poor and low condition are likewise over; death and the grave know no difference.
²⁰ Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
²¹ Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
²² Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
²³ Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
²⁴ For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
²⁵ For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
²⁶ I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
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.
I. He thinks it hard, in general, that miserable lives should be prolonged (Job 3:20-22): Wherefore is light in life given to those that are bitter in soul? Bitterness of soul, through spiritual grievances, makes life itself bitter. Why doth he give light? (so it is in the original): he means God, yet does not name him, though the devil had said, "He will curse thee to thy face;" but he tacitly reflects on the divine Providence as unjust and unkind in continuing life when the comforts of life are removed. Life is called light, because pleasant and serviceable for walking and working. It is candle-light; the longer it burns the shorter it is, and the nearer to the socket. This light is said to be given us; for, if it were not daily renewed to us by a fresh gift, it would be lost. But Job reckons that to those who are in misery it is doron adoron—gift and no gift, a gift that they had better be without, while the light only serves them to see their own misery by. Such is the vanity of human life that it sometimes becomes a vexation of spirit; and so alterable is the property of death that, though dreadful to nature, it may become desirable even to nature itself. He here speaks of those, 1. Who long for death, when they have out-lived their comforts and usefulness, are burdened with age and infirmities, with pain or sickness, poverty or disgrace, and yet it comes not; while, at the same time, it comes to many who dread it and would put it far from them. The continuance and period of life must be according to God's will, not according to ours. It is not fit that we should be consulted how long we would live and when we would die; our times are in a better hand than our own. 2. Who dig for it as for hidden treasures, that is, would give any thing for a fair dismission out of this world, which supposes that then the thought of men's being their own executioners was not so much as entertained or suggested, else those who longed for it needed not take much pains for it, they might soon come at it (as Seneca tells them) if they are pleased. 3. Who bid it welcome, and are glad when they can find the grave and see themselves stepping into it. If the miseries of this life can prevail, contrary to nature, to make death itself desirable, shall not much more the hopes and prospects of a better life, to which death is our passage, make it so, and set us quite above the fear of it? It may be a sin to long for death, but I am sure it is no sin to long for heaven.
II. He thinks himself, in particular, hardly dealt with, that he might not be eased of his pain and misery by death when he could not get ease in any other way. To be thus impatient of life for the sake of the troubles we meet with is not only unnatural in itself, but ungrateful to the giver of life, and argues a sinful indulgence of our own passion and a sinful inconsideration of our future state. Let it be our great and constant care to get ready for another world, and then let us leave it to God to order the circumstances of our removal thither as he thinks fit: "Lord, when and how thou pleasest;" and this with such an indifference that, if he should refer it to us, we would refer it to him again. Grace teaches us, in the midst of life's greatest comforts, to be willing to die, and, in the midst of its greatest crosses, to be willing to live. Job, to excuse himself in this earnest desire which he had to die, pleads the little comfort and satisfaction he had in life.
1. In his present afflicted state troubles were continually felt, and were likely to be so. He thought he had cause enough to be weary of living, for, (1.) He had no comfort of his life: My sighing comes before I eat, Job 3:24. The sorrows of life prevented and anticipated the supports of life; nay, they took away his appetite for his necessary food. His griefs returned as duly as his meals, and affliction was his daily bread. Nay, so great was the extremity of his pain and anguish that he did not only sigh, but roar, and his roarings were poured out like the waters in a full and constant stream. Our Master was acquainted with grief, and we must expect to be so too. (2.) He had no prospect of bettering his condition: His way was hidden, and God had hedged him in, Job 3:23. He saw no way open of deliverance, nor knew he what course to take; his way was hedged up with thorns, that he could not find his path. See Job 23:8, La 3:7.
2. Even in his former prosperous state troubles were continually feared; so that then he was never easy, Job 3:25,26. He knew so much of the vanity of the world, and the troubles to which, of course, he was born, that he was not in safety, neither had he rest then. That which made his grief now the more grievous was that he was not conscious to himself of any great degree either of negligence or security in the day of his prosperity, which might provoke God thus to chastise him. (1.) He had not been negligent and unmindful of his affairs, but kept up such a fear of trouble as was necessary to the maintaining of his guard. He was afraid for his children when they were feasting, lest they should offend God (Job 1:5), afraid for his servants lest they should offend his neighbours; he took all the care he could of his own health, and managed himself and his affairs with all possible precaution; yet all would not do. (2.) He had not been secure, nor indulged himself in ease and softness, had not trusted in his wealth, nor flattered himself with the hopes of the perpetuity of his mirth; yet trouble came, to convince and remind him of the vanity of the world, which yet he had not forgotten when he lived at ease. Thus his way was hidden, for he knew not wherefore God contended with him. Now this consideration, instead of aggravating his grief, might rather serve to alleviate it. Nothing will make trouble easy so much as the testimony of our consciences for us, that, in some measure, we did our duty in a day of prosperity; and an expectation of trouble will make it sit the lighter when it comes. The less it is a surprise the less it is a terror.
使徒说："你们听见过约伯的忍耐"（雅5:11）。我们确已听见过，却也听见过他的不耐烦。我们曾诧异一个人竟能如此忍耐（伯1:1-2:13），然而同样诧异一个敬虔之人竟如本章所记如此不耐烦——在此他咒诅自己的生日，并在激愤之中：I. 抱怨自己竟被生下（伯3:1-10）。II. 抱怨自己出生时未曾随即夭折（伯3:11-19）。III. 抱怨自己在苦难之中生命竟仍延续（伯3:20-26）。必须承认，约伯在此以嘴唇犯了罪；这事被记录下来，不是为让我们效法，而是为要警戒我们，叫那自以为站得稳的人小心，免得跌倒。