Job's first words were words of curse. He curses the day of his birth...
Job's first words were words of curse. He curses the day of his birth (vv. 3-10). Of course, the first thing that could come to mind is that Job was simply tired, worn out by the sufferings that had been coming down on him with terrifying regularity in recent days. That is why he dreams of Sheol, the world of shadows, where all are equal and all suffering ceases (vv. 11-19). For an adequate understanding of these complaints, it is important to remember that Jews in antiquity did not have a concept of postmortem recompense in the form that became so widespread in the Christian world beginning in the early Middle Ages, when what later became the traditional ideas of heaven and hell were taking shape.
Judaism of the postexilic era, when the Book of Job was written, knew only the teaching about the last Judgment, the universal resurrection on the day of Judgment, and the messianic Kingdom, which was to come on the day of the Messiah's arrival, a day that in the minds of believing Jews of that era was already inseparable from the day of Judgment and the universal resurrection. The afterlife, as it was believed, was the same for everyone: after death a person turned into a shadow and went down to Sheol, the dwelling place of shadows. Death made everyone equal, and recompense could come no earlier than the day of Judgment and the universal resurrection.
But Job had nothing to lose, and he was ready to go into the world of shadows. Yet the matter was not so simple. For Job, what was most terrible, as it appears, was not that he was suffering, but the hopelessness of these sufferings, their complete lack of motive, and the dead end caused by that lack of motive (vv. 20-23). The righteous man did not deserve suffering, and Job had every reason to be bewildered. But the most terrible thing was that, not knowing what he was guilty of, Job could do nothing to change the situation. His religion connected suffering with sinfulness and ungodliness, with what for Job was more terrible than any suffering. It seemed to him that God was punishing him as the wicked are punished for their sins, that he himself had become wicked in God's eyes, and nothing could be worse than such a turn of events (vv. 24-26). But most terrible of all was that Job's religiosity could not help him in any way. He offered purification sacrifices even when he could suppose sin where it may well not have existed at all; but now he did not understand what he was supposed to repent of or be cleansed from.
3 We have here Job cursing his birth day, and complaining that he was born, Job 3:1-10.
Complaining that he did not die as soon as he was born, Job 3:11-19.
Complaining that his life was continued, now he was in misery, Job 3:20-26.
3:1 His day - His birth - day, in vain do some endeavour to excuse this and the following speeches of Job, who afterwards is reproved by God, and severely accuseth himself for them, chap.Job 38:2 Job 3, Job 40:4, Job 3, Job 13:3, Job 13:6. And yet he does not proceed so far as to curse God, but makes the devil a liar: but although he does not break forth into direct reproaches of God, yet he makes indirect reflections upon his providence. His curse was sinful, both because it was vain, being applied to a thing, which was not capable of blessing and cursing, and because it cast a blame upon God for bringing that day, and for giving him life on that day.
3:3 Let the day - Let the remembrance of that day be utterly lost.
3:4 Darkness - I wish the sun had never risen upon that day, or, which is all one, that it had never been; and whensoever that day returns, I wish it may be black, and gloomy, and uncomfortable. Regard - From heaven, by causing the light of the sun which is in heaven to shine upon it.
3:5 Death - A black and dark shadow like that of the place of the dead, which is a land of darkness. Slain - Take away its beauty and glory. Terrify - That is, men in it. Let it be always observed as a frightful and dismal day.
3:6 Darkness - Constant and extraordinary darkness, without the least glimmering of light from the moon or stars. Be joined - Reckoned as one, or a part of one of them.
3:8 The day - Their birth - day: when their afflictions move them to curse their own birth - day, let them remember mine also, and bestow some curses upon it. Mourning - Who are full of sorrow, and always ready to pour out their cries, and tears, and complaints.
3:9 The stars - Let the stars, which are the glory and beauty of the night, be covered with thick darkness, and that both in the evening twilight, when the stars begin to shine; and also in the farther progress of the night, even 'till the morning dawns. Look - Let its darkness be aggravated with the disappointment of its expectations of light. He ascribes sense or reasoning to the night, by a poetical fiction, usual in all writers. Dawning - Heb. the eye - lids of the day, the morning - star which ushers in the day, and the beginning, and progress of the morning light, let this whole natural day, consisting of night and day, be blotted out of the catalogue of days.
3:10 It - The night or the day: to which those things are ascribed which were done by others in them, as is frequent in poetical writings.Womb - That it might never have brought me forth. Nor hid - Because it did not keep me from entering into this miserable life, and seeing, or experiencing, these bitter sorrows.
3:12 The knees - Why did the midwife or nurse receive and lay me upon her knees, and not suffer me to fall upon the bare ground, 'till death had taken me out of this miserable world, into which their cruel kindness hath betrayed me? Why did the breasts prevent me from perishing through hunger, or supply me that should have what to suck? Thus Job unthankfully despises these wonderful mercies of God towards poor helpless infants.
3:14 Kings - I had then been as happy as the proudest monarchs, who after all their great achievements and enjoyments, go down into their graves. Built - Who to shew their wealth and power, or to leave behind them a glorious name, rebuilt ruined cities, or built new cities and palaces, in places where before there was mere solitude and wasteness.
3:16 Hidden - Undiscerned and unregarded. Born before the due time.Been - In the land of the living.
3:17 There - In the grave. The wicked - The great oppressors and troublers of the world cease from their vexations, rapins and murders.Weary - Those who were here molested and tired out with their tyrannies, now quietly sleep with them.
3:18 The oppressor - Or, taskmaster, who urges and forces them to work by cruel threatenings and stripes. Job meddles not here with their eternal state after death, of which he speaks hereafter, but only their freedom from worldly troubles, which is the sole matter of his present discourse.
3:19 Small and great - Persons of all qualities and conditions.Are there - In the same place and state, all those distinctions being forever abolished. A good reason, why those who have power should use it moderately, and those that are in subjection should take it patiently.
3:20 Light - The light of life. Bitter - Unto those to whom life itself is bitter and burdensome. Life is called light, because it is pleasant and serviceable for walking and working; and this light is said to be given us, because it would be lost, if it were not daily renewed to us by a fresh gift.
3:21 Dig - Desire with as much earnestness as men dig for treasure: but it is observable, Job durst not do anything to hasten or procure his death: notwithstanding all his miseries, he was contented to wait all the days of his appointed time, 'till his change came, chap.Job 14:14.
3:22 Glad, etc - To be thus impatient of life, for the sake of the trouble we meet with, is not only unnatural in itself, but ungrateful to the giver of life, and shews a sinful indulgence of our own passion.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.
3:23 Hid - From him; who knows not his way, which way to turn himself, what course to take to comfort himself in his miseries.Hedged in - Whom God hath put as it were in a prison, so that he can see no way or possibility of escape.
3:24 Before, etc - Heb. before the face of my bread, all the time I am eating, I fall into sighing and weeping, because I am obliged to eat, and to support this wretched life, and because of my uninterrupted pains of body and of mind, which do not afford me one quiet moment.Roarings - My loud outcries, more befitting a lion than a man.Poured out - With great abundance, and irresistible violence, and incessant continuance, as waters flow in a river, or as they break the banks, and overflow the ground.
3:25 Feared - Even in the time of my prosperity, I was full of fears, considering the variety of God's providences, the changeableness of this vain world, God's justice, and the sinfulness of all mankind. And these fears of mine, were not in vain, but are justified by my present calamities.
3:26 Quiet - I did not misbehave myself in prosperity, abusing it by presumption, and security, but I lived circumspectly, walking humbly with God, and working out my salvation with fear and trembling.Therefore in this sense also, his way was hid, he knew not why God contended with him.