Job 3:2

Job 3:2 And Job spake, and said,

Ver. 2. And Job spake, and said] Heb. Answered and said. Answered? Whom answered he? The Jewish doctors say, he answered his friends, who having hitherto said nothing to him, and heard as little from him, at length - rupere silentia voce, to destroy a silent voice, and asked him what he ailed? others more probably conceive that Job answered here to some dispute in his own mind, or rather with the devil. Some take this verse for a transition only. Others make it a preparation for Job’s future discourse, to move expectation, and win attention. The discourse indeed is all along, to Job 42:7, poetical, and very accurate, made up in hexameters (as Jerome holdeth), not by Job and his friends at the first uttering, but afterwards by Job at better leisure; or, as some think, by Moses whilst a shepherd in Midian, for the comfort of his poor countrymen in Egypt, Sic et Ionas orationem suam in ventre balaenae habitam, et David plerosque Psalmos, &c. Mercer saith that his predecessor Vatablus (as he had heard) had found out a way of scanning these hexameters to others unknown, and to all the more obscure, because the verse causeth a cloud. The first hexameter that ever was made in Greek is said to be this,

Sυμφερετε πτερατ οιωνοι κηρον τε μελισσαι.

Birds, bring your plumes, and bees, your wax at once.

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.

spake--Hebrew, "answered," that is, not to any actual question that preceded, but to the question virtually involved in the case. His outburst is singularly wild and bold (Jer 20:14). To desire to die so as to be free from sin is a mark of grace; to desire to die so as to escape troubles is a mark of corruption. He was ill-fitted to die who was so unwilling to live. But his trials were greater, and his light less, than ours.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

And Job spake, and said. Or "answered and said" (t), though not a word was spoken to him by his friends; he answered to his own calamity, and to their silence, as Schmidt observes; and this word is sometimes used when nothing goes before, to which the answer is, as many Jewish writers observe, as in Exo 32:27; Jarchi interprets it, "he cried", and so some others (u) render it: from henceforwards to Job 42:6, this book is written in a poetical style, in Hebrew metre as is thought, which at present is pretty much unknown, even to the Jews themselves; some have been of opinion, that the following discourses between Job and his friends were not originally delivered in metre, but were put into this form by the penman or writer of the book; but of this we cannot be certain; in the Targum in the king of Spain's Bible it is, "and Job sung and said".

(t) "et respondit", Pagninus, Montanus, Schmidt, Schultens, Michaelis. (u) "Clamavitquo", Mercerus; "nam proloquens", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

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

And Job spake - Margin, as in Hebrew, “answered.” The Hebrew word used here ענה ‛ânâh “to answer,” is often employed when one commences a discourse, even though no question had preceded. It is somewhat in the sense of replying to a subject, or of speaking in a case where a question might appropriately be asked; Isa. 14:l0 (Hebrew), Zec 3:4; Deu 26:5 (Hebrew), Deu 27:14 (Hebrew). The word “to answer” ἀποκρίνομαι apokrinomai is frequently used in this way in the New Testament; Mat 17:4, Mat 17:17; Mat 28:5; Mar 9:5; Mar 10:51, et al.

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

2. Job spake — Hebrew, answered. Not their words, but their thoughts, as he had divined them. Or it may have respect to the occurrences of the last seven days (Comp. Mat_11:25.) Umbreit regards the word as intensive, and intended to increase the force of the following word.

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

Vers. 2, 3. And Job spake, and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born. An idle wish, doubtless; the vague utterance of extreme despair. Days cannot perish, or, at any rate, one day cannot perish more than another. They all come, and then are gone; but no day can perish out of the year, which will always have its full complement of three hundred and sixty-five days till time shall be no more. But extreme despair does not reason. It simply gives utterance to the thoughts and wishes as they arise. Job knew that many of his thoughts were vain and foolish, and confesses it further on. (see Job_6:3) And the night in which it was said; rather, which said. Day and night are, both of them, personified, as in Psa_19:2. There is a man child conceived. A man child was always regarded in the ancient world as a special blessing, since thus the family was maintained in being. A girl passed into another family.

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

Job’s AddressNow Job raised his voice Heb. ויען, he cried out, for every expression of עניה in the Torah is only an expression of raising the voice, and the “father” of them all is (Deut. 27:14): “The Levites shall raise their voices (וענו) etc. with a loud voice.”

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.