Bible Commentaries
Job 3

Verse 1

3:1 After this opened {a} Job his mouth, and {b} cursed his day.

(a) The seven days ended, Job 2:13.

(b) Here Job begins to feel his great imperfection in this battle between the spirit and the flesh, Romans 7:18 and after a manner yields yet in the end he gets victory though he was in the mean time greatly wounded.

Verse 3

3:3 Let the day {c} perish wherein I was born, and the night [in which] it was said, There is a man child conceived.

(c) Men should not be weary of their life and curse it, because of the infinities that it is subject to, but because they are given to sin and rebellion against God.

Verse 4

3:4 Let that day be darkness; let not God {d} regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

(d) Let it be put out of the number of days, and let it not have the sight of the sun to separate it from the night.

Verse 5

3:5 Let darkness and the {e} shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

(e) That is, most obscure darkness, which makes them afraid of death that they are in it.

Verse 8

3:8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are {f} ready to raise up their mourning.

(f) Who curse the day of their birth, let them lay that curse on this night.

Verse 9

3:9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but [have] none; neither let it {g} see the dawning of the day:

(g) Let it be always night, and never see day.

Verse 11

3:11 {h} Why died I not from the womb? [why] did I [not] give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

(h) This, and that which follows declares, that when man gives place to his passions, he is not able to stay or keep measure, but runs headlong into all evil unless God calls him back.

Verse 13

3:13 For now should I have {i} lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

(i) The vehemency of his afflictions made him utter these words as though death was the end of all miseries, and as if there were no life after this, which he speaks not as though it were so, but the infirmities of his flesh caused him to break out in this error of the wicked.

Verse 14

3:14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built {k} desolate places for themselves;

(k) He notes the ambition of them who for their pleasure as it were change the order of nature, and build in most barren places, because they would by this make their names immortal.

Verse 17

3:17 There the wicked {l} cease [from] troubling; and there the weary be at rest.

(l) That is, by death the cruelty of the tyrants has ceased.

Verse 18

3:18 [There] the {m} prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

(m) All they who sustain any kind of calamity and misery in this world: which he speaks after the judgment of the flesh.

Verse 20

3:20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and {n} life unto the bitter [in] soul;

(n) He shows that the benefits of God are not comfortable, unless the heart is joyful, and the conscience quieted.

Verse 23

3:23 [Why is light given] to a man whose way is {o} hid, and whom God hath hedged in?

(o) That sees not how to come out of his miseries, because he does not depend on God’s providence.

Verse 25

3:25 For the thing which I greatly {p} feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.

(p) In my prosperity I looked for a fall, as it now has come to pass.

Verse 26

3:26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; {q} yet trouble came.

(q) The fear of troubles that would ensue, caused my prosperity to seem to me as nothing, and yet I am not exempted from trouble.