Job 3:18

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Job 3:18

Job 3:18. There the prisoners rest together That is, one as well as another; they who were lately deprived of their liberty, kept in the strongest chains and closest prisons, and condemned to the most hard and miserable slavery, rest as well as those who were captives in much better circumstances. They hear not the voice of the oppressor Or exactor, or taskmaster, (as the word נגשׁ , nogesh, is translated Exodus 5:6,) who urges and forces them, by cruel threatenings and stripes, to... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Job 3:1-26

3:1-14:22 FIRST ROUND OF ARGUMENTJob’s bitterness (3:1-26)The long silence breaks when Job curses the day of his birth. He wishes he had never been born (3:1-7). He would like sorcerers also to curse that dark day. If they have power over the mythical sea monster Leviathan, they should have power to declare the day of his birth a day of darkness and sorrow, a day on which no person should have been born (8-10). If he had to be born, he wishes he had been stillborn. Then he would have gone... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Job 3:18

oppressor = taskmaster. read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Job 3:18

18. There the prisoners rest—from their chains. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Job 3:1-26

A. Job’s Personal Lament ch. 3The poetic body to the book begins with a soliloquy in which Job cursed the day of his birth. This introductory soliloquy corresponds to another one Job gave at the end of his dialogue with his three friends (chs. 29-31), especially chapter 31 in which he uttered another curse against himself. These two soliloquies bracket the three cycles of speeches like the covers of a book and bind them together into a unified whole.Evidently the passing of time brought Job no... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Job 3:11-19

2. The wish that he had died at birth 3:11-19Another acceptable alternative to Job was that he had been stillborn, miscarried, or died immediately after birth. All the past joys in his life could not compensate for the present misery he felt. The rest of death was better than the turmoil of life for him now that he was suffering. read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Job 3:1-26

Job Curses his DayJob curses the day of his birth. He asks why he did not die at birth: why should his wretched life be prolonged?We are now confronted with a striking change in Job’s frame of mind from that presented in Job 2:10. Probably a considerable interval had elapsed before his friends arrived. He complains in the speeches which follow of the emaciated state into which he had fallen, and that from being the honoured of all he had become a byword to his neighbours: cp. Job 1:3; Job... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Job 3:18

(18) The oppressor.—As this is the word rendered taskmaster in Exodus, some have thought there may be an allusion to that history here. read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Job 3:1-26

Job 3:1-4 He had long been in the habit of 'lamenting' his birthday, though, in earlier days, Stella and other friends had celebrated the anniversary. Now it became a day of unmixed gloom, and the chapter in which Job curses the hour of his birth lay open all day on his table. Sir Leslie Stephen, Swift, p. 198. Job 3:6 Sept. 6, 1879. Red Sea. I am in a very angry mood. I feel sure that, doing my best, I cannot get with credit out of this business; I feel it is want of faith, but I have brought... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Job 3:1-26

VI.THE CRY FROM THE DEPTHJob 3:1-26Job SPEAKSWHILE the friends of Job sat beside him that dreary week of silence, each of them was meditating in his own way the sudden calamities which had brought the prosperous emeer to poverty, the strong man to this extremity of miserable disease. Many thoughts came and were dismissed; but always the question returned, Why these disasters, this shadow of dreadful death? And for very compassion and sorrow each kept secret the answer that came and came again... read more

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