Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 3:11-19

"Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me? Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should suck? For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest, With kings and counsellors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves; Or with princes that had gold, Who filled their houses with silver: Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light. There the wicked cease from troubling; And there the weary are at rest. There the prisoners are at ease together; They hear not the voice of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there: And the servant is free from his master." — Job 3:11-19 (ASV)

After cursing the day of his birth and the night of his conception to show that he detested his life from its beginning, Job now shows that he also detests the preservation of his life. With these remarks, he shows more clearly that his life is a burden to him. There are two states of life: one is hidden, in which the conceived live in the womb; the other is open, in which one lives after birth. Regarding the first state, he asks, Why did I not die in the womb? Regarding the second, Why did I not come forth from the womb and expire? He first addresses the second state.

It should be understood that external life can be lost in two ways. First, it can be lost from some harm inflicted upon it, whether internal, like sickness, or external, like a sword or something similar. The phrase, Why did I not come forth from the womb and expire? can be applied to this. Second, external life can be taken away by the loss of necessary support. This support can be external, such as being held, kept warm, and other such aids, which is what the verse, Why did the knees receive me? refers to. Or the support can be internal, like food, to which he refers when he says, Or why was I suckled at the breast? Indeed, a newborn’s life needs these supports from the very first day.

Since asking “Why did this happen?” implies that it happened for no good reason, Job consequently shows not only the futility of preserving his life but also the harm in it. He first shows this regarding the evils he now suffers, saying, For now I would be sleeping and quiet; I would be at rest. He calls death “sleep” because of his hope in the resurrection, which he will state plainly later. By “quiet,” he means rest from the adversities he was suffering, as if to say: If I had died immediately when I was born, I would not be tormented by the evils I now suffer.

Second, he addresses this regarding the goods he previously possessed. Someone might say to him, “If you had not been preserved in this life, you would not have had the goods you enjoyed in the past.” To answer this, Job shows that the preservation of his life should not be desired for the sake of those goods, because even those who enjoy an abundance of great goods throughout their lives end up the same way in death. He means this when he says, And in my sleep—that is, death—I would have been at rest—that is, freed from the troubles of life—with kings and counselors of the earth.

He points to those with high social standing who seem to prosper, whose intention is either to enjoy their pleasures—and regarding them, he says, who built solitary dwellings for themselves (literally, for those wanting to be alone to hunt or for some other pleasant pastime)—or to accumulate wealth, and regarding them, he says, or with princes who hoard gold and fill their houses with silver. It is as if Job is saying: If I had died immediately after I was born, I would now have nothing less than what those men have after their deaths, who prospered in so many things.

Considering that rest occurs only in what subsists, the author wants us to understand from these words that the human soul subsists after death. To the objection that kings and princes of the kind he is describing perhaps do not rest but instead experience the torments of hell, or that life was useful to Job for obtaining merit, we must return to what was already said: Job is speaking from the perspective of the sensual part of the soul, expressing what he feels. This part only recognizes the physical goods and evils of the present moment.

Having shown why he should not have desired his life to be preserved after birth, Job consequently demonstrates why he should not have desired to be preserved in the womb and be born. In this, he explains what he said earlier: Why did I not die in the womb? (Job 3:11). Some die in the womb before the infusion of the rational soul, which alone is immortal. He expresses this by saying, Or why was I not like a hidden aborted birth? Such aborted fetuses have nothing of them that remains perpetually. Others, however, die after the infusion of the rational soul. These truly subsist in the soul after death, but they do not see the light of this world. To express this, Job says, or... as those conceived who never see the light—that is, the light of this present life. The word “or” here should be interpreted as “like” (sicut).

Job shows that he should have chosen this state for himself to avoid being subject to the evils of this life. He says, There—in the state of those who were conceived but never saw the light of day—the wicked cease from troubling. They cease from the trouble they caused by afflicting others, being cleansed from the evil of their fault. And there—in the state of the dead—the weary are at rest. The “weary” are warriors worn out from the struggle, and they are at rest, meaning they are free from such labor. As has been explained, he speaks here only of rest from the evils of this present life. This passage can also be understood as referring to the fatigue from any kind of work that uses one’s own strength.

He continues, There, those who were once chained will be at ease together, without their former pain, alongside those who held them bound. There, too, men weighed down by anguish and slavery do not hear the voice of the taskmaster. This agrees with Isaiah: How the oppressor has ceased; there is no more tribute! (Isaiah 14:4). He shows this is true by adding, The small and the great are there, on an equal basis. Smallness and greatness are measured in this life by the inequality of earthly prosperity; when this is removed, they return to their natural equality. Therefore, “the small and the great” should be interpreted as those who were unequal in this life due to earthly prosperity. It should be noted, however, that the difference between the small and the great in spiritual goods remains even there. But as has already been explained, he is not speaking about these goods now. There, the slave is free from his master, and so there will be no place for tribute or anything of that kind.