Job 3:3

King James Version

Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
May the day I was born perish,and the night that said,“A boy is conceived.”

Hebrew Names Version
"Let the day perish in which I was born, The night which said, 'There is a man-child conceived.'

English Standard Version
"Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.'

New Century Version
"Let the day I was born be destroyed, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is born!'

New English Translation
"Let the day on which I was born perish, and the night that said, ‘A man has been conceived!'

Amplified Bible
"Let the day on which I was born perish, And the night which announced: 'There is a man-child conceived.'

New American Standard Bible
"May the day on which I was to be born perish, As well as the night which said, 'A boy is conceived.'

World English Bible
"Let the day perish in which I was born, The night which said, 'There is a man-child conceived.'

Geneva Bible (1587)
Let the day perish, wherein I was borne, and the night when it was sayde, There is a man childe conceiued.

Legacy Standard Bible
"Let the day perish on which I was to be born,And the night which said, ‘A man is conceived.'

Berean Standard Bible
"May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, 'A boy is conceived.'

Contemporary English Version
Blot out the day of my birth and the night when my parents created a son.

Complete Jewish Bible
May that day be darkness, may God on high not seek it, may no light shine on it,

Darby Translation
Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night that said, There is a man child conceived.

Easy-to-Read Version
"I wish the day I was born would be lost forever. I wish the night they said, ‘It's a boy!' had never happened.

George Lamsa Translation
Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, A male child is conceived.

Lexham English Bible
"Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man-child is conceived.'

Literal Translation
Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night which said, A man-child has been conceived.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
lost be that daye, wherin I was borne: and the night, in the which it was sayde: there is a manchilde conceaued.

American Standard Version
Let the day perish wherein I was born, And the night which said, There is a man-child conceived.

Bible in Basic English
Let destruction take the day of my birth, and the night on which it was said, A man child has come into the world.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Let the day perishe wherin I was borne, and the night in the whiche it was sayd, There is a man childe conceaued.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night wherein it was said: 'A man-child is brought forth.'

King James Version (1611)
Let the day perish, wherein I was borne, and the night in which it was said, There is a man-childe conceiued.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Let the day perish in which I was born, and that night in which they said, Behold a man-child!

English Revised Version
Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which said, There is a man child conceived.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and the nyyt in which it was seid, The man is conceyued.

Update Bible Version
Let the day perish wherein I was born, And the night which said, A [noble] man was conceived.

Webster's Bible Translation
Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night [in which] it was said, There is a mail child conceived.

New King James Version
"May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, "A male child is conceived.'

New Living Translation
"Let the day of my birth be erased, and the night I was conceived.

New Life Bible
"Let the day be lost on which I was born, and the night which said, ‘A boy is born.'

New Revised Standard
"Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man-child is conceived.'

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Perish, the day wherein I was born, and the night it was said, Lo! a manchild!

Douay-Rheims Bible
Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said: A man child is conceived.

Revised Standard Version
"Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which said, 'A man-child is conceived.'

Young's Literal Translation
Let the day perish in which I am born, And the night that hath said: `A man-child hath been conceived.'

THE MESSAGE
"Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived! Let it be a black hole in space. May God above forget it ever happened. Erase it from the books! May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night. And the night of my conception—the devil take it! Rip the date off the calendar, delete it from the almanac. Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness— no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever! May those who are good at cursing curse that day. Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it. May its morning stars turn to black cinders, waiting for a daylight that never comes, never once seeing the first light of dawn. And why? Because it released me from my mother's womb into a life with so much trouble.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Let the day perish on which I was to be born, And the night which said, 'A boy is conceived.'

Contextual Overview

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.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Let the day: That is, as we say, "Let it be blotted out of the calendar." Job 10:18, Job 10:19, Jeremiah 15:10, Jeremiah 20:14, Jeremiah 20:15

Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 1:21 - no dew Job 3:1 - cursed Job 6:26 - reprove Jeremiah 31:22 - A woman

Cross-References

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 3:13
And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, 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;

Genesis 20:6
And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.

1 Chronicles 16:22
Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

Job 1:11
But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.

Job 2:5
But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

Job 19:21
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

1 Corinthians 7:1
Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Let the day perish wherein I was born,.... Here begins Job's form of cursing his day, and which explains what is meant by it; and it may be understood either of the identical day of his birth, and then the sense is, that he wished that had never been, or, in other words, that he had never been born; and though these were impossible, and Job knew it, and therefore such wishes may seem to be in vain, yet Job had a design herein, which was to show the greatness of his afflictions, and the sense he had of them: or else of his birthday, as it returned year after year; and then his meaning is, let it not be kept and observed with any solemnity, with feasting and other expressions of joy, as the birthdays of great personages especially were, and his own very probably had been, since his children's were, Job 1:4; but now he desires it might not be so for the future, but be entirely disregarded; he would have it perish out of his own memory, and out of the memory of others, and even be struck out of the calendar, and not be reckoned with the days of the month and year, Job 3:6; both may be intended, both the very day on which he was born, and the yearly return of it:

and the night [in which] it was said, there is a man child conceived; that is, let that night perish also; he wishes it had not been, or he had not been conceived, or for the future be never mentioned, but eternally forgotten: Job goes back to his conception, as being the spring of his sorrows; for this he knew as well as David, that he was shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin, see Job 14:4; but rather, since the particular night or time of conception is not ordinarily, easily, and exactly known by women themselves, and much less by men; and more especially it could not be told what sex it was, whether male or female that was conceived, and the tidings of it could not be brought by any; it seems better with Aben Ezra to render the word w, "there is a man child brought forth", which used to be an occasion of joy, John 16:21; and so the word is used to bear or bring forth, 1 Chronicles 4:17; see Jeremiah 20:15; and, according to him, it was a doubt whether Job was born in the day or in the night; but be it which it will, if he was born in the day, he desires it might perish; and if in the night, he wishes the same to that; though the words may be rendered in a beautiful and elegant manner nearer the original, "and the night [which] said, a man child is conceived" x; representing, by a prosopopoeia, the night as a person conscious of the conception, as an eyewitness of it, and exulting at it, as Schultens observes.

w הרה גבר "in lucem editus est vir", Mercerus; "creatus, progenitus", Drusius, so the Targum; "conceptus et natus est vir, vel mas", Michaelis; so Ben Melech. x והלילה אמר "et nox quae dixit", Mercerus, Gussetius, Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let the day perish - “Perish the day! O that there had never been such a day! Let it be blotted from the memory of man! There is something singularly bold, sublime, and “wild” in this exclamation. It is a burst of feeling where there had been long restraint, and where now it breaks forth in the most vehement and impassioned manner. The word “perish” here יאבד yo'bad expresses the “optative,” and indicates strong desire. So the Septuagint, Ἀπόλοιτο Apoloito, “may it perish,” or be destroyed; compare Job 10:18. “O that I had given up the ghost.” Dr. Good says of this exclamation, “There is nothing that I know of, ia ancient or modern poetry, equal to the entire burst, whether in the wildness and horror of the imprecations. or the terrible sublimity of its imagery.” The boldest and most animated of the Hebrew poets have imitated it, and have expressed themselves in almost the same language, in scenes of distress. A remarkably similar expression of feeling is made by Jeremiah.

Cursed be the day wherein I was born:

Let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed!

Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying,

“A man child is born unto thee,”

Making him very glad.

Be that man as the cities which yahweh overthrew and repented not!

Yea, let him hear the outcry in the morning,

And the lamentation at noon day!

Jeremiah 20:14-16.

The sense of this expression in Job is plain. He wished there never had been such a day, and then he would not have been born. It is impossible to vindicate these expressions in Job and Jeremiah, unless it be on the supposition that it is highly worked poetic language, caused by sorrow so acute that it could not be expressed in prose. We are to remember, however, if this seems to us inconsistent with the existence of true piety, that Job had far less light than we have; that he lived at an early period of the world, when the views of the divine government were obscure, and that he was not sustained by the hopes and promises which the Christian possesses now. What light he had was probably that of tradition, and of the result of careful observation on the course of events. His topics of consolation must have been comparatively few. He had few or no promises to sustain him. He had not had before him, as we have, the example of the patient Redeemer. His faith was not sustained by those strong assurances which we have of the perfect rectitude of the divine government. Before we blame him too severely, we must place ourselves in imagination in his circumstances, and ask what our piety would have done under the trials which afflicted “him.” Yet with all allowances, it is not possible to vindicate this language; and while we cannot but admire its force and sublimity, and its unequalled power and boldness in expressing strong passion, we at the same time feel that there was a lack of proper submission and patience. - It is the impassioned language of a man who felt that he could bear no more; and there can be no doubt that it gave to Satan the hope of his anticipated triumph.

And the night in which it was said - Dr. Good renders this, “And the night which shouted.” Noyes, “And the night which said.” So Gesenius and Rosenmuller, “Perish the night which said, a man child is conceived.” The Vulgate renders it, “The night in which it was said;” the Septuagint, “That night in which they said.” The Chaldee paraphrases the verse, “Perish the day in which I was born, and the angel who presided ever my conception.” Scott, quoted by Good, translates it, “The night which hailed the new-born man.” The language throughout this imprecation is that in which the night is “personified,” and addressed as if it were made glad by the birth of a son. So Schultens says, “Inducitur enim “Nox illa quasi conscia mysterii, et exultans ob spem prolis virilis.” Such personifications of day and night are common among the Arabs; see Schultens. It is a representation of day and night as “sympathizing with the joys and sorrows of mankind, and is in the truest vein of Oriental poetry.”

There is a man child conceived - Hebrew גבר geber - “a man;” compare John 16:21. The word “conceived” Dr. Good renders “brought forth” So Herder translates it. The Septuagint, Ἰδοὺ ἄρσεν Idou arsen - “lo, a male” The common translation expresses the true sense of the original. The joy at the birth of a male in Oriental countries is much greater than that at the birth of a female. A remarkable instance of an imprecation on the day of one’s birth is found in a Muslim book of modern times, in which the expressions are almost precisely the same as in Job. “Malek er Nasser Daub, prince of some tribes in Palestine, from which however he had been driven, after many adverse fortunes, died in a village near Damascus in the year 1258. When the crusaders had desolated his country, he deplored its misfortunes and his own in a poem, from which Abulfeda (Annals, p. 560) has quoted the following passage: ‘O that my mother had remained unmarried all the days of her life! That God had determined no lord or consort for her! O that when he had destined her to an excellent, mild, and wise prince, she had been one of those whom he had created barren; that she might never have known the happy intelligence that she had born a man or woman! Or that when she had carried me under her heart, I had lost my life at my birth; and if I had been born, and had seen the light, that, when the congratulating people hastened on their camels, I had been gathered to my fathers.’” The Greeks and the Romans had their unlucky days (ἡμέραι ἀποφρύδες hēmerai apofrudes “dies infausti”); that is, days which were unpropitious, or in which they expected no success in any enterprise or any enjoyment. Tacitus (Annals, xiv. 12) mentions that the Roman Senate, for the purpose of flattering Nero, decreed that the birthday of Agrippina should be regarded as an accursed day; ut dies natalis Agrippinae inter nefastos esset. See Rosenmuller, All. u. neue Morgenland, “in loc” Expressions also similar to those before us, occur in Ovid, particularly in the following passage, “Epist. ad Ibin:”

Natus es infelix (ita Dii voluere), nec ulla

Commoda nascenti stella, levisve fuit.

Lux quoque natalis, ne quid nisi tristo videres,

Turpis, et inductis nubibus atra fuit.

Sedit in adverso nocturnas culmine bubo,

Funereoque graves edidit ore sonos.

We have now similar days, which by common superstition are regarded as unlucky or inauspicious. The wish of Job seems to be, that the day of his birth might be regarded as one of those days.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 3:3. There is a man-child conceived. — The word הרה harah signifies to conceive; yet here, it seems, it should be taken in the sense of being born, as it is perfectly unlikely that the night of conception should be either distinctly known or published.