Job 3:16

or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.

World English Bible
Learn

Your notes

Private to you. Anything you write on this verse, here or while reading, shows up here and in My study.

Other translations

WEBBE

or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.

BSB

Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?

KJV

Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.

ASV

Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light.

BBE

Or as a child dead at birth I might never have come into existence; like young children who have not seen the light.

Original Hebrew

Look up a word

Tap a word to see what it means and everywhere else it's used.

Commentary

Matthew Henry · Verses 11–19

Job complained of those present at his birth, for their tender attention to him. No creature comes into the world so helpless as man. God's power and providence upheld our frail lives, and his pity and patience spared our forfeited lives. Natural affection is put into parents' hearts by God. To desire to die that we may be with Christ, that we may be free from sin, is the effect and evidence of grace; but to desire to die, only that we may be delivered from the troubles of this life, savours of corruption. It is our wisdom and duty to make the best of that which is, be it living or dying; and so to live to the Lord, and die to the Lord, as in both to be his, Ro 14:8. Observe how Job describes the repose of the grave; There the wicked cease from troubling. When persecutors die, they can no longer persecute. There the weary are at rest: in the grave they rest from all their labours. And a rest from sin, temptation, conflict, sorrows, and labours, remains in the presence and enjoyment of God. There believers rest in Jesus, nay, as far as we trust in the Lord Jesus and obey him, we here find rest to our souls, though in the world we have tribulation.

Read Matthew Henry on Job 3 →

Cross-references

6

Cross-references: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Hebrew and Greek data from STEPBible.org (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0. Library: sources.