Job’s Opening Speech
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.” j
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 k 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 l be heard in it.
8 Let those who curse days
condemn m it,
those who are ready to rouse Leviathan. n
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.
11 Why was I not stillborn;
why didn’t I die as I came from the womb? o
12 Why did the knees receive me,
and why were there breasts for me to nurse? p
13 Now I would certainly be lying down in peace;
I would be asleep. q
Then I would be at rest r
14 with the kings and counselors s of the earth,
who rebuilt ruined cities for themselves,
15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses t with silver.
16 Or why was I not hidden like a miscarried child, u
like infants who never see daylight?
17 There the wicked v cease to make trouble,
and there the weary find rest.
18 The captives are completely at rest; w
they do not hear a taskmaster’s voice. x
19 Both small and great are there,
and the slave is set free from his master. y
20 Why is light given to one burdened with grief,
and life to those whose existence is bitter, z
21 who wait for death, a but it does not come,
and search for it more than for hidden treasure,
22 who are filled with much joy
and are glad when they reach the grave? b
23 Why is life given to a man whose path is hidden, c
whom God has hedged in?
24 I sigh when food d is put before me,
and my groans pour out like water. e
25 For the thing I feared has overtaken me,
and what I dreaded has happened to me. f
26 I cannot relax or be calm;
I have no rest, g for turmoil has come.
3:1–10. After a seven-day silence, Job releases his pent-up emotions. Instead of cursing the Lord, as the adversary has predicted (1:11; 2:5) and Job’s wife has exhorted (2:9), Job curses and laments the day he was born (3:1). The transparency he displays is similar to the language of many of the lament and imprecatory psalms and the confessions of Jeremiah (e.g., Jr 20:14–18). Job’s turgid language evidences that he feels as though the whole created order of the world has come apart. In contrast to the creation narrative in Gn 1:3–4, in which God says, “Let there be light,” Job now wishes for what is impossible, that the day of his birth might be turned back into darkness, that is, that it be undone (3:3–4), as by a solar eclipse (3:5). He wishes that the night of his conception were absent from the calendar (3:6).
3:11–19. Job turns from cursing to questioning in 3:11–26, using a series of rhetorical questions that all of the speakers will attempt to answer. His key word throughout this section is “why.” The rhetorical questions reveal the frustration in Job’s spirit and unintentionally imply that there are aspects of his experience that he does not understand. Job perceives death as a step above his present condition (3:13). He feels isolated from his community, but he regards death as the great social leveler. He supposes that it liberates all humans from the inequities of life, because in death all people are equally devoid of possessions, power, and prominence (3:14–15). As he perceives death through the lens of his adversity, he sees former captives enjoying their ease far from the oppression of their previous taskmasters (3:18–19).
3:20–26. Although he clearly views death as preferable to the kind of life he is experiencing (3:20–22), he does not take the next step toward ending his own life, as his wife has come close to recommending. In OT Wisdom literature, “path” (3:23) is frequently used of God’s path of wisdom that leads to life (e.g., Pr 4:18). Job asks why life is given to one who cannot understand where his painful path of life is proceeding. In 1:10, Satan said that the Lord had placed a protective hedge around Job; here the same picture expresses a sense of being trapped and restricted by God (cf. Hs 2:6).