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Read the Bible

King James Version

Job 3:16

Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Dead (People);   Despondency;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Murmuring;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Sheol;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Abortion;   Death, Mortality;   Grave;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Heart;   Independency of God;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Hell;   Job, the Book of;   Poetry;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Hidden;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Death, Views and Customs Concerning;   Strophic Forms in the Old Testament;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Or why was I not hidden like a miscarried child,like infants who never see daylight?
Hebrew Names Version
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants who never saw light.
English Standard Version
Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?
New Century Version
Why was I not buried like a child born dead, like a baby who never saw the light of day?
New English Translation
Or why was I not buried like a stillborn infant, like infants who have never seen the light?
Amplified Bible
"Or like a miscarriage which is hidden and put away, I would not exist, Like infants who never saw light.
New American Standard Bible
"Or like a miscarriage which is hidden, I would not exist, As infants that never saw light.
World English Bible
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants who never saw light.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Or why was I not hid, as an vntimely birth, either as infants, which haue not seene the light?
Legacy Standard Bible
Or why was I not like a miscarriage hidden away,As infants that never saw light?
Berean Standard Bible
Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?
Contemporary English Version
I wish I had been born dead and then buried, never to see the light of day.
Complete Jewish Bible
"There the wicked cease their raging, there the weary are at rest,
Darby Translation
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants that have not seen the light.
Easy-to-Read Version
Why wasn't I a child who died at birth and was put in the ground? I wish I had been buried like a baby who never saw the light of day.
George Lamsa Translation
Or like a hidden untimely birth, as if I had not been; like infants that never saw the light.
Good News Translation
or sleeping like a stillborn child.
Lexham English Bible
Or why was I not hidden like a miscarriage, like infants who did not see the light?
Literal Translation
or as a hidden miscarriage, I would not have been, like infants who never saw light.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
O that I vtterly had no beynge, or were as a thige borne out of tyme (that is put asyde) ether as yonge children, which neuer sawe the light.
American Standard Version
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light.
Bible in Basic English
Or as a child dead at birth I might never have come into existence; like young children who have not seen the light.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Or [why] was not I hyd, as a thing borne out of tune, [either] as young children which neuer sawe the light?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants that never saw light.
King James Version (1611)
Or as an hidden vntimely birth, I had not bene; as infants which neuer saw light.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
or I should have been as an untimely birth proceeding from his mother’s womb, or as infants who never saw light.
English Revised Version
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
ethir as a `thing hid not borun Y schulde not stonde, ethir whiche conseyued sien not liyt.
Update Bible Version
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light.
Webster's Bible Translation
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants [which] never saw light.
New King James Version
Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, Like infants who never saw light?
New Living Translation
Why wasn't I buried like a stillborn child, like a baby who never lives to see the light?
New Life Bible
Why did I not die before I was born, hidden and put away, as babies that never see the light?
New Revised Standard
Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child, like an infant that never sees the light?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Or that, like an untimely birth hidden away, I had not come into being, like infants that never saw light:
Douay-Rheims Bible
Or as a hidden untimely birth, I should not be; or as they that, being conceived, have not seen the light.
Revised Standard Version
Or why was I not as a hidden untimely birth, as infants that never see the light?
Young's Literal Translation
(Or as a hidden abortion I am not, As infants -- they have not seen light.)
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Or like a miscarriage which is discarded, I would not be, As infants that never saw light.

Contextual Overview

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 build desolate places for themselves; 15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver: 16 Or as an 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.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

an hidden: Psalms 58:8, 1 Corinthians 15:8

Reciprocal: Numbers 12:12 - of whom Job 3:20 - light Job 33:28 - see Ecclesiastes 6:3 - that an Jeremiah 20:17 - he slew

Cross-References

Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Genesis 3:6
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Genesis 3:7
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Genesis 3:8
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
Genesis 3:9
And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
Genesis 3:10
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Genesis 3:11
And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Genesis 3:12
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Genesis 3:16
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Genesis 3:17
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Or as an hidden untimely birth,.... Or "hid, as one born out of time", as Mr. Broughton reads it; the Septuagint use the same word as the apostle does, when he says the like of himself, 1 Corinthians 15:8; the word has the signification of "falling" s, and designs an abortive, which is like to fruit that falls from the tree before it is ripe; and this may be said to be "hidden", either in the belly, as the Targum, or however from the sight of man, it being not come to any proper shape, and much less perfection; now Job suggests, that if he had not lain with kings, counsellors, and princes, yet at least he should have been as an abortion, and that would have been as well to him: then

I had not been; or should have been nothing, not reckoned anything; should not have been numbered among beings, but accounted as a nonentity, and should have had no subsistence or standing in the world at all:

as infants [which] never saw light; and if not like an untimely birth, which is not come to any perfection, yet should have been like infants, which, though their mothers have gone their full time with them, and they have all their limbs in perfection and proportion, yet are dead, or stillborn, their eyes have never been opened to see any light; meaning not the light of the law, as the Targum, but the light of the sun, or the light of the world, see Ecclesiastes 6:3; infants used to be buried in the wells or caves of the mummies t.

s כגפל "sicut abortivus qui ex utero excidit, aut in terram cadit", Michaelis. t Vansleb, ut supra, (Relation of a Voyage to Egypt,) p. 90.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Or as an hidden untimely birth - As an abortion which is hid, or concealed; that is, which is soon removed from the sight. So the Psalmist, Psalms 58:8 :

As a snail which melteth, let thom dissolve;

As the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

Septuagint ἔκτρωμα ektrōma, the same word which is used by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:8, with reference to himself; see the notes at that place.

I had not been - I should have perished; I should not have been a man, as I now am, subject to calamity. The meaning is, that he would have been taken away and concealed, as such an untimely birth is, and that he would never have been numbered among the living and the suffering.

As infants which never saw light - Job expresses here no opinion of their future condition, or on the question whether such infants had immortal souls. He is simply saying that his lot would have been as theirs was, and that he would have been saved from the sorrows which he now experienced.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 3:16. Or as a hidden untimely birth — An early miscarriage, which was scarcely perceptible by the parent herself; and in this case he had not been - he had never had the distinguishable form of a human being, whether male or female.

As infants — Little ones; those farther advanced in maturity, but miscarried long before the time of birth.


 
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