Job 3
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New English Translation

Job 3:10-12

10because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb on me, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes!

111“Why did I not die at birth, and why did I not expire as I came out of the womb?

12Why did the knees welcome me, and why were there two breasts that I might nurse at them?

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Notes

  1. 1. Job 3:11 Job follows his initial cry with a series of rhetorical questions. His argument runs along these lines: since he was born (v. 10), the next chance he had of escaping this life of misery would have been to be still born (vv. 11-12, 16). In vv. 13-19 Job considers death as falling into a peaceful sleep in a place where there is no trouble. The high frequency of rhetorical questions in series is a characteristic of the Book of Job that sets it off from all other portions of the OT. The effect is primarily dramatic, creating a tension that requires resolution. See W. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry, 340-41. ↩

Commentaries on Job 3

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