Job 3:11

Job, perhaps reflecting upon himself for his folly in wishing he had never been born, follows it, and thinks to mend it, with another, little better, that he had died as soon as he was born, which he enlarges upon in these verses. When our Saviour would set forth a very calamitous state of things he seems to allow such a saying as this, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the paps which never gave suck (Luk 23:29); but blessing the barren womb is one thing and cursing the fruitful womb is another! It is good to make the best of afflictions, but it is not good to make the worst of mercies. Our rule is, Bless, and curse not. Life is often put for all good, and death for all evil; yet Job here very absurdly complains of life and its supports as a curse and plague to him, and covets death and the grave as the greatest and most desirable bliss. Surely Satan was deceived in Job when he applied that maxim to him, All that a man hath will he give for his life; for never any man valued life at a lower rate than he did.

I. He ungratefully quarrels with life, and is angry that it was not taken from him as soon as it was given him (Job 3:11, Job 3:12): Why died not I from the womb? See here, 1. What a weak and helpless creature man is when he comes into the world, and how slender the thread of life is when it is first drawn. We are ready to die from the womb, and to breathe our last as soon as we begin to breathe at all. We can do nothing for ourselves, as other creatures can, but should drop into the grave if the knees did not prevent us; and the lamp of life, when first lighted, would go out of itself if the breasts given us, that we should suck, did not supply it with fresh oil. 2. What a merciful and tender care divine Providence took of us at our entrance into the world. It was owing to this that we died not from the womb and did not give up the ghost when we came out of the belly. Why were we not cut off as soon as we were born? Not because we did not deserve it. Justly might such weeds have been plucked up as soon as they appeared; justly might such cockatrices have been crushed in the egg. Nor was it because we did, or could, take any care of ourselves and our own safety: no creature comes into the world so shiftless as man. It was not our might, or the power of our hand, that preserved us these beings, but God's power and providence upheld our frail lives, and his pity and patience spared our forfeited lives. It was owing to this that the knees prevented us. Natural affection is put into parents' hearts by the hand of the God of nature: and hence it was that the blessings of the breast attended those of the womb. 3. What a great deal of vanity and vexation of spirit attends human life. If we had not a God to serve in this world, and better things to hope for in another world, considering the faculties we are endued with and the troubles we are surrounded with, we should be strongly tempted to wish that we had died from the womb, which would have prevented a great deal both of sin and misery.

He that is born today, and dies tomorrow,

Loses some hours of joy, but months of sorrow.

4. The evil of impatience, fretfulness, and discontent. When they thus prevail they are unreasonable and absurd, impious and ungrateful. To indulge them is a slighting and undervaluing of God's favour. How much soever life is embittered, we must say, "It was of the Lord's mercies that we died not from the womb, that we were not consumed." Hatred of life is a contradiction to the common sense and sentiments of mankind, and to our own at any other time. Let discontented people declaim ever so much against life, they will be loth to part with it when it comes to the point. When the old man in the fable, being tired with his burden, threw it down with discontent and called for Death, and Death came to him and asked him what he would have with him, he then answered, "Nothing, but to help me up with my burden."

II. He passionately applauds death and the grave, and seems quite in love with them. To desire to die that we may be with Christ, that we may be free from sin, and that we may be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, is the effect and evidence of grace; but to desire to die only that we may be quiet in the grave, and delivered from the troubles of this life, savours of corruption. Job's considerations here may be of good use to reconcile us to death when it comes, and to make us easy under the arrest of it; but they ought not to be made use of as a pretence to quarrel with life while it is continued, or to make us uneasy under the burdens of it. It is our wisdom and duty to make the best of that which is, be it living or dying, and so to live to the Lord and die to the Lord, and to be his in both, Rom 14:8. Job here frets himself with thinking that if he had but died as soon as he was born, and been carried from the womb to the grave, 1. His condition would have been as good as that of the best: I would have been (says he, Job 3:14) with kings and counsellors of the earth, whose pomp, power, and policy, cannot set them out of the reach of death, nor secure them from the grave, nor distinguish theirs from common dust in the grave. Even princes, who had gold in abundance, could not with it bribe Death to overlook them when he came with commission; and, though they filled their houses with silver, yet they were forced to leave it all behind them, no more to return to it. Some, by the desolate places which the kings and counsellors are here said to build for themselves, understand the sepulchres or monuments they prepared for themselves in their life-time; as Shebna (Isa 22:16) hewed himself out a sepulchre; and by the gold which the princes had, and the silver with which they filled their houses, they understand the treasures which, they say, it was usual to deposit in the graves of great men. Such arts have been used to preserve their dignity, if possible, on the other side death, and to keep themselves from lying even with those of inferior rank; but it will not do: death is, and will be, an irresistible leveller. Mors sceptra ligonibus aequat - Death mingles sceptres with spades. Rich and poor meet together in the grave; and there a hidden untimely birth (Job 3:16), a child that either never saw light or but just opened its eyes and peeped into the world, and, not liking it, closed them again and hastened out of it, lies as soft and easy, lies as high and safe, as kings and counsellors, and princes, that had gold. "And therefore," says Job, "would I had lain there in the dust, rather than to lie here in the ashes!" 2. His condition would have been much better than now it was (Job 3:13): "Then should I have lain still, and been quiet, which now I cannot do, I cannot be, but am still tossing and unquiet; then I should have slept, whereas now sleep departeth from my eyes; then had I been at rest, whereas now I am restless." Now that life and immortality are brought to a much clearer light by the gospel than before they were placed in good Christians can give a better account than this of the gain of death: "Then should I have been present with the Lord; then should I have seen his glory face to face, and no longer through a glass darkly." But all that poor Job dreamed of was rest and quietness in the grave out of the fear of evil tidings and out of the feeling of sore boils. Then should I have been quiet; and had he kept his temper, his even easy temper still, which he was in as recorded in the two foregoing chapters, entirely resigned to the holy will of God and acquiescing in it, he might have been quiet now; his soul, at least, might have dwelt at ease, even when his body lay in pain, Psa 25:13. Observe how finely he describes the repose of the grave, which (provided the soul also be at rest in God) may much assist our triumphs over it. (1.) Those that now are troubled will there be out of the reach of trouble (Job 3:17): There the wicked cease from troubling. When persecutors die they can no longer persecute; their hatred and envy will then perish. Herod had vexed the church, but, when he became a prey for worms, he ceased from troubling. When the persecuted die they are out of the danger of being any further troubled. Had Job been at rest in his grave, he would have had no disturbance from the Sabeans and Chaldeans, none of all his enemies would have created him any trouble. (2.) Those that are now toiled will there see the period of their toils. There the weary are at rest. Heaven is more than a rest to the souls of the saints, but the grave is a rest to their bodies. Their pilgrimage is a weary pilgrimage; sin and the world they are weary of; their services, sufferings, and expectations, they are wearied with; but in the grave they rest from all their labours, Rev 14:13; Isa 57:2. They are easy there, and make no complaints; there believers sleep in Jesus. (3.) Those that were here enslaved are there at liberty. Death is the prisoner's discharge, the relief of the oppressed, and the servant's manumission (Job 3:18): There the prisoners, though they walk not at large, yet they rest together, and are not put to work, to grind in that prison-house. They are no more insulted and trampled upon, menaced and terrified, by their cruel task-masters: They hear not the voice of the oppressor. Those that were here doomed to perpetual servitude, that could call nothing their own, no, not their own bodies, are there no longer under command or control: There the servant is free from his master, which is a good reason why those that have power should use it moderately, and those that are in subjection should bear it patiently, yet a little while. (4.) Those that were at a vast distance from others are there upon a level (Job 3:19): The small and great are there, there the same, there all one, all alike free among the dead. The tedious pomp and state which attend the great are at an end there. All the inconveniences of a poor and low condition are likewise over; death and the grave know no difference.

Levelled by death, the conqueror and the slave,

The wise and foolish, cowards and the brave,

Lie mixed and undistinguished in the grave.

- Sir R. Blackmore

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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

Ver. 11. Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost? &c.] Why was I not forthwith carried ab utero ad urnam? from the womb to the tomb, from the birth to the burial? True it is, that infants have the seed of death in them, and the principle of corruption, Rom 5:14. Every one (say some chemists) hath his own balsam within him; his own bane it is sure that he hath. But why should Job be so weary of life, and so wish to be rid of it? Is not life a great mercy? Doth not the philosopher affirm, that a pismire excelleth the heavens in dignity, because it is a living creature? Saith not the Scripture, that a living dog is better than a dead lion? Ecc 9:4; and why is living man sorrowful, a man for the punishment of his sin? Lam 3:39; q.d. Let him be never so much punished, it is for his sin; and if, amidst all, he be yet a living man, and have his life spared, he need not be so overly sorrowful, and to make such an outcry, and a wishing himself out of the world, as Job here doth. Life, alas! in its utmost extent is but a little spot of time between two eternities, before, and after; but it is a great consequence, and given us for this end, that glory may be begun in grace, and we have a further and further entrance here into the kingdom of heaven, as Peter saith, 2Pe 1:11. This, if Job had seriously and sedately considered (but now, alas! as in a hot lever, all the humours were on a hurry), he would rather have done, as they say Themistocles did; who though he lived till he was about 107 years of age; yet when he came to die, he was grieved upon this ground, Now I am to die, said he, when I begin to be wise.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 3:11-12. Why died I not from the womb? — It would surely have been far better, and much happier for me, had I either expired in the womb where I received my life, or it had been taken from me the very moment my eyes saw the light of this world. Why did the knees prevent me? — Why did the midwife or nurse receive and lay me upon her knees, and not suffer me to fall upon the bare ground, till death had taken me out of this sorrowful world, into which their cruel kindness hath betrayed me? Why did the breasts prevent me from perishing through hunger, or supply me that I should have what to suck? — Thus Job unthankfully despises these wonderful mercies of God toward poor, helpless infants.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Second long strophe — JOB WISHES THAT HE WERE DEAD, Job_3:11-19.

a. The four following questions form a climax: he follows the course of his life from its commencement in embryo (מרחם) to the birth, and from the joy of his father, who took the new-born child upon his knees, to the fuller development of the infant, and he curses this growing life in four phases. — ARNHEIM and SCHOTTMANN, Job_3:11-13.

11. Why died I not — Since for some inexplicable cause it was necessary that I should live, why did I not die before, or immediately when, I was born? Even the gay and frivolous life of the Greek, with all its glamour, could not hide the current of misery that pulsated through and through the nation’s heart. And yet little would we expect from the Greek such a maxim of despair as this of Theognis, (425:) “The best of all things is, not to be born and see the rays of the bright sun, but when born, to die as soon as possible, and lie buried under a load of earth”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:11-24 Job’s language turns from curse to lamentation. Job alternates between repugnance for life and a romance with death. Seven times, Job laments his situation by asking why (3:11, 12, 16, 20, 23; see Pss 10:1; 22:1; Jer 20:18; Lam 5:20).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

This, and that which followeth, declareth, that when man giveth place to his passions, he is not able to stay nor keep measure, but runneth headlong into all evil, except God call him back.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 11. Why died I not from the womb] As the other circumstance did not take place, why was I not still-born, without the possibility of reviviscence? or, as this did not occur, why did I not die as soon as born? These three things appear to me to be clearly intended here: -

1. Dying in the womb, or never coming to maturity, as in the case of an abortion.

2. Being still-born, without ever being able to breathe.

3. Or, if born alive, dying within a short time after. And to these states he seems to refer in the following verses.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11–19. Would God I had died from my birth

If he must be born, Job asks, Why he did not die from the womb? his eye turning to the next possibility and chance of escaping sorrow. Had he died he would have been at peace; and the picture of the painless stillness of death fascinates him and he dwells long on it, counting over with a minute particularity all classes, kings and prisoners, slaves and masters, small and great, who there drink deep of a common peace, escaping the unquietness of life, for life upon the earth, however lived, is full of a painful restlessness. The thought of this stillness of death brings a certain calm to the sufferer’s mind, and the passionateness of his former words subsides.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Why died I not from the womb?.... That is, as soon as he came out of it; or rather, as soon as he was in it, or from the time that he was in it; or however, while he was in it, that so he might not have come alive out of it; which sense seems best to agree both with what goes before and follows after; for since his conception in the womb was not hindered, he wishes he had died in it; and so some versions render it to this sense (n):

why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? since he died not in the womb, which was desirable to him, he wishes that the moment he came out of it he had expired, and is displeased because it was not so, see Jer 20:17; thus what is the special favour of Providence, to be taken out of the womb alive, and preserved, he wishes not to have enjoyed, see Psa 22:9.

(n) , Sept. "in vulva", V. L. "aut, in utero", Beza, Mercerus, Cocceius, Junius, Michaelis; so R. Abraham Peritzol, and Simeon Bar Tzemach.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Why died I not from the womb? - Why did I not die as soon as I was born? Why were any pains taken to keep me alive? The suggestion of this question leads Job in the following verses into the beautiful description, of what he would have been if he had then died. He complains, therefore, that any pains were taken by his friends to keep him alive, and that he was not suffered peacefully to expire.

Gave up the ghost - A phrase that is often used in the English version of the Bible to denote death; Gen 49:33; Job 11:20; Job 14:10; Jer 15:9; Mat 27:50; Act 5:10. It conveys an idea, however, which is not necessarily in the original, though the idea in itself is not incorrect. The idea conveyed by the phrase is that of yielding up the “spirit” or “soul,” while the sense of the original here and elsewhere is simply “to expire, to die.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In the. Hebrew, "from the womb," (Haydock) or as soon as I was born. (Calmet) --- He seems to have lost sight of original sin, (ver. 1.) or there might be some method of having it remitted to children unborn, which we do not know. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

From the womb, i.e. as soon as ever I was born, or come out of the womb. And the same thing is expressed in other words, which is an elegancy usual both in the Hebrew and in other languages.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Why died I not from the womb? From the womb" must mean, "as soon as I came out of the womb," not "while I yet remained within it". (comp. Jer_20:17, "Because he slew me not from the womb) Many of the ancients thought that it was best not to be born; and next best, if one were born, to quit the earth as soon as possible. Herodotus says that with the Trauri, a tribe of Thracians, it was the custom, whenever a child was born, for all its kindred to sit round it in a circle, and weep for the woes that it would have to endure now that it was come into the world; while, on the other hand, whenever a person died, they buried him with laughter and rejoicings, since they said that he was now free from a host of sufferings, and enjoyed the completest happiness (Herod., 5:4). Sophocles expresses the feeling with great terseness and force: Mh funai togon to d epei fash bhnai keiyen oyen per hkei polu deuteron wstacista "Not to be born is best of all; once born, next best it is by far to go back there from whence one came as speedily as possible." Modem pessimism sums up all in the phrase that "life is not worth living." Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? As so often, the second clause of the distich repeats the idea of the first, merely varying the phraseology.

Vers. 11-19. The stricken patriarch"s lament: 2. Bewailing his life.

I THE DESPISED GIFT LIFE. In bitterness of soul, Job not only laments that ever he had entered on the stage of existence at all, but with the perverse ingenuity of grief which looks at all things crosswise, he turns the very mercies of God into occasions of complaint, despising God"s care of him:

1. Before birth. "Why died I not from the womb?" i.e. while I was yet unborn; surely a display of monstrous ingratitude, since, if God did not protect the tender offspring of men prior to their birth, it would be impossible that they should ever see the light. (contrast Psa_139:13)

2. At birth. "Why did 1 not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?" To which he might himself have returned answer:

(1) Because of God"s sovereign will; man being God"s creature,and (Gen_5:1 Deu_4:32Jo Deu_10:8 Deu_12:10 Deu_27:3 Deu_33:4) God ever doing according to his will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of earth. (Job_9:12 Job_12:9 Job_33:13)

(2) Because of God"s great power, the hour of birth being a time so fraught with peril to a tender babe as well as to a suffering mother, that only God"s watchful guardianship can account for a child not dying as soon as it is born. (Job_31:15 Psa_71:6)

(3) Because of God"s spontaneous kindness; life being a gift to the bestowal of which God can be moved by nothing but his own free favour, as Job afterwards acknowledged. (Job_10:12)

3. After birth. "Why did the knees preventi.e. anticipate or why the breasts that I should suck?" (ver. 12). To which, again, he might have responded that man is so helpless in infancy that without the safe shelter of a father"s arms and the strong support of a father"s knees, as well as the warm nest of a mother"s bosom and the rich consolations of a mother"s breasts ("consolationes lactis humani" Augustine, "Confessions," bk. 1. ch. 6), he must inevitably perish. That God has provided these for man is a signal proof of the Divine wisdom and loving-kindness. That any should despise them is a mark of thoughtlessness, if not of depravity. (cf. Psa_22:9, 10 71:5, 6)

II THE LOST BLESSING THE GRAVE. Thus undervaluing God"s great gift of life, he proceeds to depict a blessing of which he foolishly as well as sinfully supposes himself to have been deprived in consequence of having entered on the stage of existence, viz. the peaceful repose of the grave, in which he should have enjoyed:

1. Perfect rest should I have lain still," like one reclining on his couch after the labours of the day death being compared to a night of resting after the day of working life. (Ec 9,ec 10 Psa_104:23 Rev_14:13) "And been quiet at peace, withdrawn from every kind of trouble and annoyance the grave being a place of absolute security against every form of temporal calamity. (vers. 17, 18 Ecc_9:5) "I should have slept death being often likened to a sleep. (Joh_11:11 Act_7:60 Act_13:36 1Th_4:13 1Th_5:10) "Then had I been at rest;" my sleep being untroubled, a profound slumber unvisited by dreams the rest of the grave being, especially for the good man, a couch of the most peaceful repose, (Gen_15:15 Ecc_12:5 Job_7:2 Job 50:30:23) in comparison with which Job"s maladies and miseries allowed him neither rest nor quiet.

2. Dignified companionship. "Then had I been at rest with kings and counsellors of the earth," etc. Enjoying a splendid association with the great ones of the earth, now lying in their magnificent mausoleums, instead of sitting, as I presently do, on this ash-heap, in sublime but sorrowful isolation, an object of loathing and disgust to passers-by. The human heart, in its seasons of distress, longs for society, in particular the society of sympathetic friends; and sometimes the loneliness of sorrow is so great that the thought of the grave, with its buried millions, presents to the sufferer a welcome relief. However obscure, isolated, miserable, the lot of a saint on earth, death introduces him to the noblest fellowships of his fathers; (Gen_15:15 Gen_25:8) of "the spirits of just men made perfect"; (Heb_12:23) of the Saviour. (Luk_23:43 Php_1:23)

3. Absolute equality. Whereas he was now spurned by his fellows, he would then, had he died in infancy, have attained to as much glory as the aforesaid counsellors, kings, and princes, who, notwithstanding their ambitious greatness, which had led them to construct gorgeous sepulchres and amass untold hoards of wealth, were now lying cold and stiff within their desolate palaces. Behold the vanity of earthly greatness! monarchs mouldering in the dust. (Isa_14:11 Eze_32:23) See the impotence of wealth it cannot arrest the footsteps of death. (Luk_16:22) Note that death is a great leveler, (Ecc_2:14, 16 Psa_89:48 Heb_9:27) and the grave a place where distinctions are unknown. (ver. 19; Ecc_3:20)

4. Complete tranquility. "As a hidden untimely birth I had not been, and as children that have never seen the light" (ver. 16; cf. Ecc_6:4, Ecc_6:5); unconscious and still as non-existence itself, as those "upon whose unopened ear no cry of misery ever fell, and on whose unopened eye the light, and the evil which the light reveals, never broke;" a tranquility deeper (and, in Job"s estimation, more blessed) than that of those who only attain rest after passing through life"s ills a doctrine against which both the light of nature and the voice of revelation protest (vide homily on ver. 16).

5. Entire emancipation. A perfect cessation from all life"s troubles, and a final escape from the exactions of his unseen oppressor. "There the wicked cease from troubling," etc. (vers. 17-19; cf. Ecc_9:5-10) a sentiment, again, which is only partially correct, i.e. so far as it relates to the ills of life.

LESSONS.

1. God"s best gifts are often least appreciated.

2. Men frequently mistake ill for good.

3. What we have not commonly appears more desirable than what we have.

4. "Better is a living dog than a dead lion.

5. The grave is a poor place for a man to hide his sorrows in.

6. It is better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.

7. It is well to scrutinize keenly all that we either think or say in trouble.

8. There is a greater sin than despising the gift of temporal existence, viz. despising the offer of eternal life.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job Longs for Death

v. 11. Why died I not from the womb, immediately after birth? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

v. 12. Why did the knees prevent me? "Prevent" is here used in the old sense of anticipate, be ready for, said of the father, who took the new-born child on his lap, joyfully acknowledging his son. Or why the breasts that I should suck? Said of the readiness, of the anxious longing, of the mother to nurse her child, to give him the food needed in order to sustain life.

v. 13. For now should I have lain still and been quiet, not bothered with any of the misery which he was now suffering; I should have slept, in the untroubled sleep of the grave; then had I been at rest,

v. 14. with kings and counselors of the earth, the highest officers of the state, the royal advisers and ministers, which built desolate places for themselves, who erected for themselves what proved to be, not palaces, but ruins; ("The paths of glory lead but to the grave";)

v. 15. or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver, those who heaped up countless treasures for themselves;

v. 16. or as an hidden, untimely birth I had not been, he would not exist at all, as infants which never saw light. All of them, the builders of great palaces, the rich millionaires, together with the still-born babes, they all enter into the rest of the grave, whether this be decorated with a structure upon whose ruins men gaze with wondering surprise, or whether it be a hole in the ground whose very location is afterward forgotten.

v. 17. There the wicked cease from troubling, no longer being engaged in raging; and there the weary, those who suffered misery and trouble in this life, be at rest, removed from everything that wearied out their strength.

v. 18. There the prisoners rest together, as many as there may be; they hear not the voice of the oppressor, no taskmaster, or overseer, threatens them any longer.

v. 19. The small and great are there, for death makes all men equal; and the servant is free from his master. The very thought of the rest and quiet of the grave, with its surcease from sorrow and misery, is fascinating to Job; he lingers over the thought before continuing his complaint in which he desires death for himself.

v. 20. Wherefore is light, namely, the light of life, given to him that is in misery and life unto the bitter in soul, why should God continue them in this miserable life,

v. 21. which long for death, but it cometh not, and dig for it, with frantic desire, more than for hid treasures,

v. 22. which rejoice exceedingly, in an excess of jubilation, and are glad when they can find the grave? It is a cry of extreme anguish which longs for deliverance by death and is unable to explain why this coveted deliverance is denied.

v. 23. Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, the light of life continued to a man as helpless and forsaken as Job, and whom God hath hedged in, so that he is unable to find deliverance?

v. 24. For my sighing cometh before I eat, instead of eating and enjoying his food he is constrained to groan in his misery, and my roarings are poured out like the waters, in a steady, unremittent flow, without relief.

v. 25. For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, if he but thought of a terrible thing, he was immediately struck by it, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me, if he dreaded a thing, he was immediately overtaken by it, he was obliged to endure all that he had ever considered frightful.

v. 26. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quite, he was so troubled then that he had neither respite nor repose; yet trouble came, it was coming upon him in an endless stream. Thus even believers are sometimes overwhelmed by impatience, giving way to expressions which are full of accusations against God. A Christian should always be prepared to die, but he should not impatiently desire death at any time. He is ill prepared for death who is unwilling to live.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

General Information:

This passage contains four rhetorical questions, which Job asks in order to really make a series of statements.

Why did I not die when I came out from the womb?

"Why did I not die at birth?" Job poses this question in order to curse the day of his birth and to express his anguish. AT: "I wish I had died the day I was born" (See: Rhetorical Question)

Why did I not give up my spirit when my mother bore me?

Job means to say that he should not have been born alive. AT: "I wish I had died when I came out of the womb." (See: Rhetorical Question)

give up my spirit

This refers to dying. (See: Idiom)

Why did her knees welcome me?

This perhaps refers to the lap of Job's mother. His mother's knees are spoken of as if they were people who could welcome a newborn baby. AT: "I wish there had been no lap to receive me." (See: Rhetorical Question and Personification)

Why did her breasts receive me so that I should suck?

Job's mother's breasts are spoken of as if they also were people who could welcome a newborn baby. AT: "I wish there had been no breasts for me to nurse." (See: Rhetorical Question and Personification)

translationWords

die

womb

spirit

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Why did I not die from the womb? why was I not ready to die immediately upon my emergence from the womb? He speaks in the future tense, as though he were standing now on the day of his emergence from the womb and saying, “Why will I not die now, and why did I not... emerge from the belly and perish?” Why was my death not imminent?

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.