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1–10. Job's curse on the day and night of his birth. 11–26. Regret, why he was given life, and the motives for this. Job 3:1. After this Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. Expressing in his first speech regret about his birth and a desire for death - a lifeless stay, peace in Sheol, Job begins it with a curse - a wish for evil (2 Kings 16.7-8; Jer 20.14) on the day and night of his birth, which served as the source, the beginning of so many disasters. Job 3:2. And Job began and said: “And he said,” literally from Hebrew – “answered.” Job's speech, in which he pleads not guilty, is indeed a response to the secret thoughts of his friends, convinced of the sinfulness of the sufferer. Job 3:3. perish the day on which I was born, and the night in which it was said: man was conceived! Job 3:4. Let that day be darkness; May God not seek him from above, and may the light not shine on him! Day consists of the presence of light; the disappearance of the latter (“let that day be darkness” - v. 4) is tantamount to the death of the day (“let the day perish” - v. 3). The replacement of darkness with light, i.e., the existence of the day was established by God himself (Gen. 1.4); Job turns to Him with a request, so that He would not allow this change in the number of his birth and thereby fulfill the request for the destruction of the day. Job 3:5. May darkness and the shadow of death darken it, may a cloud surround it, may they fear it like scorching heat! Strengthening thoughts art. 4. Let thick grave darkness reign during the hours allotted for light (Job 10.21–22). Job 3:6. That night - may darkness possess it, may it not be counted among the days of the year, may it not be included in the number of months! The night of Job's birth should not turn into day; Let the prevailing darkness throughout its continuation not be replaced by light. And since the night constitutes a certain number in conjunction with the day, then by itself, taken separately from the day, without passing into it, it cannot be included either in the composition of the numbers of the year or the month. Job 3:7. ABOUT! that night - let it be deserted; let no fun enter into it! Unhappy for Job, it should not be the time of birth (“barren”) and someone else, he will be unhappy, like him, Job. Under the condition that this desire be fulfilled, on the night of his birth there will be no joy that accompanies the birth of a person (John 16.21). Job 3:8. May those who curse the day, who can awaken the leviathan, curse her! Spellcasters who can use their power to awaken Leviathan can help fulfill Job’s desire. Used in the Bible to designate terrible reptiles (Ps 73:14, 103:26; Isa 27.1), the expression “leviathan” is thought to indicate, in the present case, a constellation hostile to the sun and moon, absorbing them, thanks, among other things, to the spells of the spellcasters, and thus producing an eclipse. The absence of biblical indications of the existence among Jews of belief in such a constellation does not speak against the possibility of the given explanation: the author could have used a popular belief not noted in the Bible. Other peoples - the Chinese and Indians - had it. Job 3:9. May the stars of her dawn darken: may she wait for the light, and it does not come, and may she not see the eyelashes of the morning star The night of Job's birth must forever remain darkness; should never see glimpses of the morning dawn - “the eyelashes of the morning star”. Job 3:11. Why didn’t I die when I came out of the womb, and why didn’t I die when I came out of the womb? Job 3:12. Why did my knees accept me? Why did I have to suck nipples? Forced to come to terms with the idea of ​​birth as an inevitable fact, Job still expresses regret about why he survived the initial moments of his existence: the moment of birth (“coming out of the womb”, cf. Jer. 20.18), being accepted by his father on his knees as a sign that he is his son (Gen. 50.23) and the time of feeding his mother’s milk. Job 3:13. Now I would lie down and rest; I would sleep and I would be at peace Job 3:14. with the kings and councilors of the earth, who built up the deserts for themselves, Job 3:15. or with princes who had gold and filled their houses with silver; Job 3:16. or, like a hidden miscarriage, I would not exist, like babies who have not seen the light. Job 3:17. There the lawless cease to cause fear, and there those who are exhausted in strength rest. Job 3:18. There, the prisoners enjoy peace together and do not hear the screams of the guard. Job 3:19. The small and the great are equal there, and the slave is free from his master. The basis for such regret is the consideration that death is better than life, being in the grave is preferable to being on earth. The grave is a place of complete calm, the cessation of spiritual and physical suffering. In it, kings and princes rest in peace, of whom the first bothered themselves on earth with concerns about populating devastated areas - the desert (Hebrew "harabot" ruins. Compare Isa 44:26, 58:12; Ezek 36.10), the second - collecting treasures (vv. 14-15). In the grave there is an end to the cruelties of some and the suffering of others: in it, those who endured backbreaking labor on earth, and prisoners of the dungeon who have never seen the light, and slaves, whose life is one continuous work, find peace (Job 7.2). Job 3:20. Why is light given to the sufferer, and life to the sorrowful in soul, Job 3:21. who are waiting for death, and it is not there, who would rather dig it up than a treasure, Job 3:22. Would you be overjoyed and delighted that you found the coffin? Job 3:23. Why is light given to a person whose path is closed, and whom God has surrounded with darkness? Personally, for Job, death is desirable because it would save him from a painful state - the loss of understanding of the meaning of life. Life is a time of possible joys for a person: “the light is sweet” (Eccl. 11.7); but this sweetness is not available to him, saddened by his soul; he cannot live and enjoy life. Why continue to exist? Some relief in the present sad situation could be for Job to know the cause of the suffering that befell him; but this is hidden from him, he is in the darkness of ignorance (v. 23). Job 3:24. My sighs warn my bread, and my groans flow like water, Stricken by illness and having lost the meaning of life, Job experiences a state of mental confusion, the expression of which is constant sighs and groans. Job 3:25. for the terrible thing that I was terrified of befell me; and what I feared came to me. This confusion is accompanied by something else terrible, which he is afraid of and cannot get rid of. In this case, Job hints, perhaps, at those nightmares that he talks about below (Job 7.14). Job 3:26. There is no peace for me, no peace, no joy: misfortune has befallen me. Feeling confused and suffering from nightmares, Job cannot calm down for a minute. You might be interested in: