Albert Barnes Commentary Job 3

After this – Dr. Good renders this “at length.” It means after the long silence of his friends, and after he saw that there was no prospect of relief or of consolation.

Opened Job his mouth – This is the usual formula in Hebrew to denote the commencement of a speech . Schultens contends that it means boldness and vehemence of speech, παῤῥησία parrēsia – or an opening of the mouth for the purpose of accusing, expostulating, or complaining; or to begin to utter some sententious, profound, or sublime maxim. In support of this, he appeals to Psalm 78:2 and Proverbs 8:6.

There is probably, however, nothing more intended than to begin to speak. It is in accordance with Oriental views, where an act of speaking is regarded as a grave and important matter and is undertaken with much deliberation. Blackwell (Life of Homer, p. 43) remarks that the Turks, Arabs, Hindus, and Orientals in general have little inclination for society and general conversation; they seldom speak, and their speeches are sententious and brief, unless they are much excited. With such people, making a speech is a serious matter, as indicated by the manner in which their discourses are commonly introduced: “I will open my mouth,” or “they opened the mouth,” implying great deliberation and gravity. This phrase occurs often in Homer, Hesiod, Orpheus, and Virgil , as well as in the Bible. See Burder, in Rosenmuller’s Morgenland, on this passage.

And cursed his day – The word translated “curse” here, קלל qâlal, is different from that used in Job 1:11 and Job 2:9. It is the proper word to denote “to curse.” The Syriac adds, “the day in which he was born.” A similar expression occurs in Klopstock’s Messias, Gesang III.

Wenn nun, aller Kinder beraubt, die verzweifelnde Mutter,
Wuthend dem Tag, an dem sie gebahr, und gebohren ward, fluchet.
“When now of all her children robbed, the desperate mother enraged
Curses the day in which she bore, and was born.”

And Job spoke - Margin, as in Hebrew, “answered.” The Hebrew word used here ענה (‛ ânâh), “to answer,” is often used when one begins to speak, even though no question preceded it. It is somewhat in the sense of replying to a subject, or of speaking in a case where a question might appropriately be asked;Isaiah 14:0 (Hebrew); Zechariah 3:4; Deuteronomy 26:5 (Hebrew); Deuteronomy 27:14 (Hebrew). The Greek word for “to answer,” ἀποκρίνομαι (apokrinomai), is frequently used in this way in the New Testament; Matthew 17:4; Matthew 17:17; Matthew 28:5; Mark 9:5; Mark 10:51; and elsewhere.

Let the day perish – “Perish the day! Oh, 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. : “Oh that I had given up the ghost.” Dr. Good says of this exclamation, “There is nothing that I know of, in 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 in which I was born:
Let not the day in which my mother bore me be blessed!
Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying,
“A man child is born to you,”
Making him very glad.
Let that man be as the cities which Yahweh overthrew and repented not!
Yea, let him hear the outcry in the morning,
And the lamentation at noonday! (Jeremiah 20:14–16).

The sense of this expression in Job is plain. He wished there had never 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 is on the supposition that it is highly elaborate 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. He lived at an early period of the world, when the views of the divine government were obscure, and 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 over 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” . The word “conceived” Dr. Good renders “brought forth.” So Herder translates it. The Septuagint, Ἰδοὺ ἄρσεν Idou arsen – “behold, 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: “Oh, that my mother had remained unmarried all the days of her life! That God had determined no lord or consort for her! Oh, 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 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, Altes und neues 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.

Let that day be darkness – Let it not be day; or, oh, that it had not been day, that the sun had not risen, and that it had been night.

Let not God regard it from above – The word translated here as “regard,” דרשׁ dârash, properly means to seek or inquire after, to ask for or demand. Dr. Good translates it here as, “Let not God enclose it,” but this meaning is not found in the Hebrew. Noyes translates it literally as, “Let not God seek it.” Herder translates it as, “Let not God inquire after it.” The meaning may be that Job wished the day to be sunk beneath the horizon, or into the deep waters by which he conceived the earth to be surrounded, and in this case, he prays that God would not seek it and bring it from its dark abode. Or, it may be that he desired that God would never inquire after it, so that it might pass from his remembrance and be forgotten. What we value, we would wish God to remember and bless; what we dislike, we would wish Him to forget.

This seems to be the idea here. Job hated that day, and he wished all other beings to forget it. He wished it blotted out, so that even God would never inquire after it, but regard it as if it had never been.

Neither let the light shine upon it – Let it be utter darkness; let not a ray ever reveal it. It will be seen here that Job first curses “the day.” The amplification of the curse with which he began in the first part of (Job 3:3), continues through (Job 3:4–5); and then he returns to the “night,” which also (in the latter part of Job 3:3) he wished to be cursed. He expresses his desires regarding that unhappy night in (Job 3:6–10).

Let darkness and the shadow of death - The Hebrew word צלמות tsalmâveth is exceedingly musical and poetical. It is derived from צל tsêl — "a shadow," and מות mâveth — "death," and is used to denote the deepest darkness; see the notes at Isaiah 9:2. It occurs frequently in the sacred Scriptures; compare Job 10:21-22; Psalms 23:4; Job 12:22; Job 16:16; Job 24:17; Job 34:22; Job 38:17; Amos 5:8; Jeremiah 2:6.

This term is used to denote the abode of departed spirits, described by Job as a land of darkness, as darkness itself; of the shadow of death without any order, and where the light is as darkness (Job 10:21–22).

The idea seems to have been that "death" was a dark and gloomy object that obstructed all light and threw an ominous shade far; indeed, that melancholy shade was thrown far over the regions of the dead. The sense here is that Job wished the deepest conceivable darkness to rest upon it.

Stain it - Margin, or "challenge." Vulgate, "obscure it." Septuagint, "take or occupy it," Ἐκλάβοι Eklaboi — Dr. Good, "crush it." Noyes, "redeem it." Herder, "seize it."

This variety of interpretation has arisen in part from the twofold signification of the word used here, גאל gā'al. The word means either to "redeem," or to "defile," "pollute," "stain."

These senses are not very closely connected, and I do not know how the one has grown out of the other, unless it is that redemption was accomplished with blood, and that the frequent sprinkling of blood on an altar rendered it defiled, or unclean. In one sense, blood thus sprinkled would purify when it took away sin; in another, it would render an object unclean or polluted. Gesenius says that the latter signification occurs only in the later Hebrew.

If the word here means to "redeem," the sense is that Job wished darkness to resume its dominion over the day, and redeem it to itself, and thus wholly to exclude the light.

If the word means to defile or pollute, the sense is that he desired the death-shade to stain the day wholly black, to take out every ray of light, and to render it wholly obscure. Gesenius renders it in the former sense. The sense which Reiske and Dr. Good give to the word, "crush it," is not found in the Hebrew.

The word means to defile, stain, or pollute in the following places: namely, it is rendered "pollute" and "polluted" in Malachi 1:7, Malachi 1:12; Zephaniah 3:1; Lamentations 4:14; Ezra 2:62; Nehemiah 7:64; "defile" or "defiled" in Isaiah 59:3; Daniel 1:8; Nehemiah 13:29; and "stain" in Isaiah 63:3.

It seems to me that this is the sense here, and that the meaning has been well explained by Schultens: that Job wished that his birthday should be involved in a deep "stain," that it should be covered with clouds and storms, and made dark and dismal.

This curse referred not only to the day on which he was born, but to each succeeding birthday. Instead of its being on its return a bright and cheerful day, he wished that it might be annually a day of tempests and of terrors; a day so marked that it would excite attention as especially gloomy and inauspicious. It was a day whose return conveyed no pleasure to his soul, and which he wished no one to observe with gratitude or joy.

Let a cloud dwell upon it - There is, as Dr. Good and others have remarked, much sublimity in this expression. The Hebrew word rendered "a cloud," עננה ‛ănânâh, occurs nowhere else in this form. It is the feminine form of the word ענן ‛ânân, "a cloud," and is used "collectively" to denote "clouds."

That is, it signifies clouds piled on clouds — clouds "condensed, impacted, heaped together" (Dr. Good) — and hence, the gathered tempest: the clouds assembled deep and dark, and ready to burst forth in the fury of a storm.

Theodotion renders it συννεφέα sunnefea — "assembled clouds," and hence, "darkness." The Septuagint renders it γνόφος gnophos — "tempest," or "thick darkness." So Jerome, "caligo."

The word rendered "dwell upon it," שׁכן shâkan, properly means to "settle down" and there to abide or dwell. Perhaps the original notion was that of fixing a tent, and so Schultens renders it, “tentorium figat super eo Nubes,” "Let the cloud pitch its tent over it." This is rendered by Dr. Good as, "The gathered tempest pavilion over it!"

"This is an image," says Schultens, "common among the Arabs." The sense is that Job wished clouds piled on clouds to settle down on the day permanently, to make that day their abode, and to involve it in deep and eternal night.

Let the blackness of the day terrify it - Margin, "Or, Let them terrify it as those who have a bitter day." There has been great variety in the interpretation of this passage. Dr. Good renders it, "The blasts of midday terrify it." Noyes, "Let whatever darkens the day terrify it." Herder, "The blackness of misfortune terrify it." Jerome, Et involvatur amaritudine, "let it be involved in bitterness." The Septuagint, καταραθείη ἡ ἡμέρα katarathein hē hēmera, "let the day be cursed." This variety has arisen from the difficulty of determining the sense of the Hebrew word used here and rendered "blackness," כמרירים kı̂mrı̂yrı̂ym.

If it is supposed to be derived from the word כמר kâmar — to be warm, to be hot, to burn — then it would mean the deadly heats of the day, the dry and sultry blasts which prevail so much in sandy deserts. Some writers suppose that there is a reference here to the poisonous wind Samum or Samiel, which sweeps over those deserts and which is so much dreaded in the heat of summer.

"Men as well as animals are often suffocated by this wind. For during a great heat, a current of air often comes that is still hotter; and when human beings and animals are so exhausted that they almost faint away with the heat, it seems that this small addition quite deprives them of breath. When a man is suffocated by this wind, or when, as they say, his heart is burst, blood is said to flow from his nose and ears two hours after his death. The body is said to remain warm for a long time, to swell, to turn blue and green, and if an arm or leg is grasped to lift it, the limb is said to come off."

This is from Burder’s Oriental Customs, No. 176. From the testimony of recent travelers, however, it seems that the injurious effects of this wind have been greatly exaggerated. If this interpretation is the true one, then Job wished the day of his birth to be frightful and alarming, as when such a poisonous blast would sweep along all day and render it a day of terror and dread. But this interpretation does not well suit the parallelism.

Others, therefore, understand by the word "obscurations," or whatever darkens the day. Such is the interpretation of Gesenius, Bochart, Noyes, and some others. According to this, the reference is to eclipses or fearful storms that cover the day in darkness.

The noun here is not found elsewhere, but the verb כמר kâmar is used in the sense of being black and dark in Lamentations 5:10: Our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine; or perhaps more literally, Our skin is scorched as with a furnace, from the burning heat of famine.

That which is burned becomes black, and hence, the word may mean that which is dark, obscure, and gloomy. This meaning suits the parallelism and is a sense that the Hebrew will bear. Another interpretation regards the Hebrew letter כ (k) used as a prefix before the word כמרירים kı̂mrı̂yrı̂ym, "bitterness," and then the sense is, "according to the bitterness of the day" — that is, the greatest calamities that can happen to a day. This sense is found in several of the ancient versions and is adopted by Rosenmuller.

To me, it seems that the second interpretation proposed best suits the connection, and that the meaning is that Job wished that everything that could render the day gloomy and obscure might rest upon it. The Chaldee adds here, "Let it be as the bitterness of day — the grief with which Jeremiah was afflicted in being cut off from the house of the sanctuary, and Jonah in being cast into the sea of Tarshish."