Job’s Opening Speech
3:1 After this, Job began to speak and cursed the day he was born.
3:1 After this, Job began to speak and cursed the day he was born.
2 He said:
3 May the day I was born perish,
and the night that said,
“A boy is conceived.”
4 If only that day had turned to darkness!
May God above not care about it,
or light shine on it.
5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it,
and a cloud settle over it.
May what darkens the day terrify it.
6 If only darkness had taken that night away!
May it not appear among the days of the year
or be listed in the calendar.
7 Yes, may that night be barren;
may no joyful shout be heard in it.
8 Let those who curse days
condemn it,
those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
9 May its morning stars grow dark.
May it wait for daylight but have none;
may it not see the breaking of dawn.
10 For that night did not shut
the doors of my mother’s womb,
and hide sorrow from my eyes.
3 May the day I was born perish,
and the night that said,
“A boy is conceived.”
4 If only that day had turned to darkness!
May God above not care about it,
or light shine on it.
5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it,
and a cloud settle over it.
May what darkens the day terrify it.
6 If only darkness had taken that night away!
May it not appear among the days of the year
or be listed in the calendar.
7 Yes, may that night be barren;
may no joyful shout be heard in it.
8 Let those who curse days
condemn it,
those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
9 May its morning stars grow dark.
May it wait for daylight but have none;
may it not see the breaking of dawn.
10 For that night did not shut
the doors of my mother’s womb,
and hide sorrow from my eyes.
Commentary
(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, 1706 -- www.christianity.com)
"For seven days Job's friends sat by him in silence, without offering consolidation: at the same time Satan assaulted his mind to shake his confidence, and to fill him with hard thoughts of God. The permission seems to have extended to this, as well as to torturing the body.
Job was an especial type of Christ, whose inward sufferings, both in the garden and on the cross, were the most dreadful; and arose in a great degree from the assaults of Satan in that hour of darkness. These inward trials show the reason of the change that took place in Job's conduct, from entire submission to the will of God, to the impatience which appears here, and in other parts of the book.
The believer, who knows that a few drops of this bitter cup are more dreadful than the sharpest outward afflictions, while he is favored with a sweet sense of the love and presence of God, will not be surprised to find that Job proved a man of like passions with others; but will rejoice that Satan was disappointed, and could not prove him a hypocrite; for though he cursed the day of his birth, he did not curse his God. Job doubtless was afterwards ashamed of these wishes, and we may suppose what must be his judgment of them now he is in everlasting happiness."
