Tyndale Open Study NotesJob 3

• Job spoke and risked words of sin (1:21; 2:10).

• Job cursed the day of his birth in great detail. However, his words sounded more like sad complaints. Job did not curse God as his creator, but he showed grief about the condition of his life.

Job's outbreak of emotion did not mean his integrity failed under pressure (42:7–8; James 5:11). The prophets Elijah and Jeremiah, both men of God, exaggerated with similar language (1 Kings 19:4; Jeremiah 20:14–18).

Job wished that the darkness of the place of the dead and the gloom of death had not allowed him to be born (Exodus 10:22; Proverbs 4:19; Joel 2:2; Job 10:21–22; 38:17).

The phrase those who curse the day refers to people paid to curse, like Balaam (Numbers 22–24).

Venus and Mercury, known as the morning stars, announce the arrival of dawn (38:7).

shut the doors of the womb: Closing or opening the womb can mean conception (Genesis 16:2; 20:18; 29:31; 30:22; 1 Samuel 1:5–6). But here it means birth (see also Job 38:8).

Job's language shifts from wishing he was never born to grief. He goes from hating life towards an attraction for death. Job asks "why" seven times, as he has grief for his situation (3:11, 12, 16, 20, 23; see Psalms 10:1; 22:1; Jeremiah 20:18; Lamentations 5:20).

People believed the dead kept their identities and social status. Job might have wanted kings and prime ministers to recognize his status as a prince (1:3).

who had gold, who filled their houses with silver: This might refer to tombs filled with treasure. However, it more likely refers to the useless storing of wealth that ends in death (as in 3:14).

•  Job compared light to life (33:30; see John 1:4; 8:12).

• Bitter might mean:

1. “Angry” (Judges 18:25).

2. “Fierce” (2 Samuel 17:8).

3. “Anguish” (Job 7:11).

4. Desperate (Proverbs 31:6).

5. “Distress” (1 Samuel 1:10; 22:2).

People in grief desperately long for death, like those who search for hidden treasure.