For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Job 3:1-10

1 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 He said:

3 ‘May the day of my birth perish,
    and the night that said, “A boy is conceived!”
4 That day – may it turn to darkness;
    may God above not care about it;
    may no light shine on it.
5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more;
    may a cloud settle over it;
    may blackness overwhelm it.
6 That night – may thick darkness seize it;
    may it not be included among the days of the year
    nor be entered in any of the months.
7 May that night be barren;
    may no shout of joy be heard in it.
8 May those who curse days curse that day,
    those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
9 May its morning stars become dark;
    may it wait for daylight in vain
    and not see the first rays of dawn,
10 for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me
    to hide trouble from my eyes.

A. Find Out

1. What did Job curse? v.1
2. What in history does he wish was destroyed? v.2,3
3. What does he wish happened to it? v.4-6
4. What does he wish had happened on that night? v.7
5. Who does he want to come and help to do what? v.8,9
6. But what didn’t happen? v.10

B. Think:

1. How would you summarise Job’s desire in these verses?
2. Why do you think he feels that?

C. Comment:

My paraphrase of verses 3 to 10 would be as follows: “If only the day when I was born and they said, “It’s a boy!” could be blotted out from history (v.3), if only it disappeared and be hidden from even God’s sight (v.4), if only it entirely disappeared  (v.5),  that night when I was born, if only it could be wiped off the calendar (v.6),  if only the record of the shout of joy of that night could be wiped clean away (v.7), if only the soothsayers who curse, would curse that day, even those who seek to bring mystical beasts to destroy their enemies, would use them to wipe out this day! (v.8). If you look back on it, if only the night would go black and daylight never come to that day (v.9), for it didn’t stop me being born into a life of trouble (v.10). None of these things happened, so I was born!”

As Job starts his first discourse, we see it laid out in poetic form and therefore it comes with much poetic language. The long and short of it is, I wish I’d never been born! He is in so much anguish that he wishes he’d never even had a human experience. He wishes the day of his birth could be removed from history, that it disappeared in darkness, that the soothsayers could remove it by a curse so it never ever happened. In all this we slowly start to catch something of the anguish that Job is suffering. Before the arguing about why this has happened, we must face the anguish that he feels.

D. Application:

1. Can we feel with those who anguish?
2. Can we understand their revulsion of life itself?

Passage: Job 3:11-26

11 ‘Why did I not perish at birth,
    and die as I came from the womb?
12 Why were there knees to receive me
    and breasts that I might be nursed?
13 For now I would be lying down in peace;
    I would be asleep and at rest
14 with kings and rulers of the earth,
    who built for themselves places now lying in ruins,
15 with princes who had gold,
    who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child,
    like an infant who never saw the light of day?
17 There the wicked cease from turmoil,
    and there the weary are at rest.
18 Captives also enjoy their ease;
    they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout.
19 The small and the great are there,
    and the slaves are freed from their owners.

20 ‘Why is light given to those in misery,
    and life to the bitter of soul,
21 to those who long for death that does not come,
    who search for it more than for hidden treasure,
22 who are filled with gladness
    and rejoice when they reach the grave?
23 Why is life given to a man
    whose way is hidden,
    whom God has hedged in?
24 For sighing has become my daily food;
    my groans pour out like water.
25 What I feared has come upon me;
    what I dreaded has happened to me.
26 I have no peace, no quietness;
    I have no rest, but only turmoil.’

A. Find Out

1. If he had died at birth where would he now be? v.11-13
2. With whom would he be on the same par? v.14,15
3. What alternative does he wish for? v.16
4. Who are better off in death? v.17-19
5. On whose behalf does he then question? v.20-22
6. How does he finally describe himself? v.23-26

B. Think:

         For whom does death seem preferable? (A detailed answer?)

C. Comment:

Job asks questions about that day of his birth, using the word ‘why’ again and again. It starts with a question, “Why did I not die at birth? (v.11), why did the midwife and my mother bother with me? (v.12)” Then he gives what might be called today an alternate reality, what might have been: “because if they had left me to die, I would be at rest, free from trouble (v.13), just like those great people of the earth who are now nothing (v.14), those who accumulated much for nothing.” (v.15). He then wonders: “why couldn’t I have been stillborn and just buried?” (v.16). This is followed by ponderings on the easier path of death: in death we’re all just the same (v.17), and slaves are freed from their labour (v.18), we’re are all the same, and the slave is no longer controlled by his master (v.19).  If only he had died at birth he would have avoided all the present pain.

In the remaining verses he asks the questions: Why am I being preserved now? Why are we allowed to live on in misery and remain aware? Why is ongoing life given to us so we have to continue in anguish (v.20), when we’d rather be dead (v.21,22)? He concludes with a final question: “So why is ongoing life given?” (v.23) because this life is full of sighs and groans (v.24), and his worst nightmares have happened (v.25), and peace has left him and he’s left with only turmoil (v.26).

D. Application:

1. In an affluent life, it is easy to forget those in the world who are suffering in a variety of means. Pray for them.
2. If Job’s cries are alien to you, give thanks for the goodness of your life today. Thank God for it.