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Read the Bible

Myles Coverdale Bible

Job 3:16

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.

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.
King James Version
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which 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.
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 Alas, why dyed I not in ye byrth? Why dyd not I perysh, as soone as I came out of my mothers wobe? 12 Why set they me vpo yeir knees? Why gaue they me suck with their brestes? 13 Then shulde I now haue lyen still, I shulde haue slepte, and bene at rest: 14 like as the kynges ad lordes of ye earth, which buylde them selues speciall places: 15 As the prynces that haue greate substaunce of golde, & their houses full of syluer. 16 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. 17 There must the wicked ceasse from their tyranny, there soch as are ouerlaboured, be at rest: 18 there are those letten out fre, which haue bene in preson, so that they heare nomore the voyce of the oppressoure: 19 There are small and greate: the bonde man, and he that is fre fro 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
Bvt the serpent was sotyller then all the beastes of the felde (which ye LORDE God had made) and sayde vnto the woman: Yee, hath God sayde indede: Ye shall not eate of all maner trees in the garden?
Genesis 3:6
And the woman sawe that ye tre was good to eate of, and lustye vnto the eyes, and a pleasaunt tre to make wyse, and toke of the frute of it, and ate, and gaue vnto hir husbande also therof, and he ate.
Genesis 3:7
Then were the eyes of them both opened, and they perceaued that they were naked, and sowed fygge leaues together, and made them apurns.
Genesis 3:8
And they herde the voyce of the LORDE God, which walked in the garden in the coole of the daye. And Adam hyd him self with his wyfe, from the presence of ye LORDE God amonge the trees of the garden.
Genesis 3:9
And ye LORDE God called Adam, and sayde vnto him: Where art thou?
Genesis 3:10
And he saide: I herde thy voyce in the garden, and was afrayed, because I am naked, and therfore I hyd my self.
Genesis 3:11
And he sayde: who tolde the, that thou art naked? Hast thou not eaten of the tre, wherof I commaunded the, yt thou shuldest not eate?
Genesis 3:12
Then sayde Adam: The woman which thou gauest me (to beare me company) gaue me of the tre, and I ate.
Genesis 3:16
And vnto the woman he sayde: I will increase thy sorow, whan thou art with childe: with payne shalt thou beare thy childre, and thy lust shal pertayne vnto yi hußbande, and he shal rule the.
Genesis 3:17
And vnto Adam he sayde: For so moch as thou hast herkened vnto the voyce of thy wyfe, and hast eaten of the tre, wherof I commaunded the, sayenge: thou shalt not eate of it. Cursed be ye earth for thy sake. With sorowe shalt thou eate therof, all the dayes 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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