Job 3:20, Job 3:23 KJV

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Job 3:20

Job 3:20. Wherefore is light given למה יתן , lama jitten; why doth he give, or hath he given, light, namely, the light of life, to him that is in misery, whose life is a scene of sorrow and distress, loaded and pressed with numberless calamities? and life unto the bitter in soul Unto those whose life itself is very bitter and burdensome, whose souls are full of heaviness, being overpowered with the weight of affliction? Why doth he obtrude his favours upon those that abhor them? 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 3:20

Wherefore . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6 . soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13 . read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Job 3:20

JOB IS TORTURED BOTH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY"Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery,And life unto the bitter in soul;Who long for death, but it cometh not,And dig for it more than for hid treasures;Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,And whom God hath hedged in?For my sighing cometh before I eat,And my groanings are poured out like water.For the thing which I fear cometh upon me,And that which I am afraid of... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Job 3:20

20. Wherefore giveth he light—namely, God; often omitted reverentially (Job 24:23; Ecclesiastes 9:9). Light, that is, life. The joyful light ill suits the mourners. The grave is most in unison with their feelings. 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 3:20-26

3. The wish that he could die then 3:20-26Much of Job’s suffering was intellectual. He asked, "Why?" frequently in this soliloquy (Job 3:11-12; Job 3:20; Job 3:23) and in the dialogue that follows (Job 7:20-21; Job 9:29; Job 13:24; Job 21:4; Job 24:1)."My groaning comes at the sight of my food" (Job 3:24) may mean that food was not appealing to him. Probably he also meant that his groaning was as regular and frequent as his meals. The parallel idea at the end of Job 3:24 means his pain was as... 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 3:20

(20) Wherefore is light given.—Comp. the connection between life and light in Psalms 36:9 and John 1:4. 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