Job 3:2-3 - Exposition

And Job spake, and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born . An idle wish, doubtless; the vague utterance of extreme despair. Days cannot perish, or, at any rate, one day cannot perish more than another. They all come, and then are gone; but no day can perish out of the year, which will always have its full complement of three hundred and sixty-five days till time shall be no more. But extreme despair does not reason. It simply gives utterance to the thoughts and wishes as they arise. Job knew that many of his thoughts were vain and foolish, and confesses it further on (see Job 6:3 ). And the night in which it was said ; rather, which said. Day and night are, both of them, personified, as in Psalms 19:2 . There is a man child conceived . A man child was always regarded in the ancient world as a special blessing, since thus the family was maintained in being. A girl passed into another family.