Job 3:17. There the wicked cease from troubling In the grave the great oppressors and troublers of the world cease from their vexatious rapines and murders; and there the weary be at rest Those who were here molested, and tired out with their tyrannies, oppressions, and injuries, now quietly sleep with them. read more
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
wicked = lawless agitators. Hebrew. rasha'. App-44 . weary = worn out [of strength]. read more
Job 3:17. The weary be at rest— The Hebrew here כח יגיעי yegiiai koach signifies, The toils of power; and these toils of the great are put in opposition to those of the slave, the meanest condition. The verse may be rendered, There the wicked cease to be a terror, and there the toils of power are in repose. The beginning of the 19th verse should be rendered, The small and great are equal there. read more
17. the wicked—the original meaning, "those ever restless," "full of desires" (Isaiah 57:20; Isaiah 57:21). the weary—literally, "those whose strength is wearied out" (Isaiah 57:21- :). read more
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
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
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
(17) There—i.e., in the grave, the place indicated, but not distinctly expressed. read more
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Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Job 3:17
There the wicked cease - from “troubling.” In the grave - where kings and princes and infants lie. This verse is often applied to heaven, and the language is such as will express the condition of that blessed world. But as used by Job it had no such reference. It relates only to the grave. It is language which beautifully expresses the condition of the dead, and the “desirableness” even of an abode in the tomb. They who are there, are free from the vexations and annoyances to which people are... read more