New English Translation

Job 3:11-22

11 1“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?

13For now I would be lying down and would be quiet, I would be asleep and then at peace

14with kings and counselors of the earth who built for themselves places now desolate,

15or with princes who possessed gold, who filled their palaces with silver.

16Or why was I not buried like a stillborn infant, like infants who have never seen the light?

17There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest.

18There the prisoners relax together; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

19Small and great are there, and the slave is free from his master.

20 2“Why does God give light to one who is in misery, and life to those whose soul is bitter,

21to those who wait for death that does not come, and search for it more than for hidden treasures,

22who rejoice even to jubilation, and are exultant when they find the grave?

Notes

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. ↩
2. Job 3:20 Since he has survived birth, Job wonders why he could not have died a premature death. He wonders why God gives light and life to those who are in misery. His own condition throws gloom over life, and so he poses the question first generally, for many would prefer death to misery (20-22); then he comes to the individual, himself, who would prefer death (23). He closes his initial complaint with some depictions of his suffering that afflicts him and gives him no rest (24-26). ↩