1 Kings 19:4

19:4 while he went a day’s journey into the desert. He went and sat down under a shrub ¹  and asked the Lord to take his life: ²  “I’ve had enough! Now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I’m no better than my ancestors.” ³ 

Job 3:20-22

Longing for Death ⁴ 

3:20 “Why does God ⁵  give ⁶  light to one who is in misery, ⁷ 

and life to those ⁸  whose soul is bitter,

3:21 to ⁹  those who wait ¹⁰  for death that ¹¹  does not come,

and search for it ¹² 

more than for hidden treasures,

3:22 who rejoice ¹³  even to jubilation, ¹⁴ 

and are exultant ¹⁵  when ¹⁶  they find the grave? ¹⁷ 

Job 6:8-10

A Cry for Death

6:8 “Oh that ¹⁸  my request would be realized, ¹⁹ 

and that God would grant me what I long for! ²⁰ 

6:9 And that God would be willing ²¹  to crush me,

that he would let loose ²²  his hand

and ²³  kill me. ²⁴ 

6:10 Then I would yet have my comfort, ²⁵ 

then ²⁶  I would rejoice, ²⁷ 

in spite of pitiless pain, ²⁸ 

for ²⁹  I have not concealed the words ³⁰  of the Holy One. ³¹ 

Job 7:15

7:15 so that I ³²  would prefer ³³  strangling, ³⁴ 

and ³⁵  death ³⁶  more ³⁷  than life. ³⁸ 

Jonah 4:3

4:3 So now, Lord, kill me instead, ³⁹  because I would rather die than live!” ⁴⁰ 

Jonah 4:8-9

4:8 When the sun began to shine, God sent ⁴¹  a hot ⁴²  east wind. So the sun beat down ⁴³  on Jonah’s head, and he grew faint. So he despaired of life, ⁴⁴  and said, “I would rather die than live!” ⁴⁵  4:9 God said to Jonah, “Are you really so very angry ⁴⁶  about the little plant?” And he said, “I am as angry ⁴⁷  as I could possibly be!” ⁴⁸ 

Philippians 1:20-24

1:20 My confident hope ⁴⁹  is that I will in no way be ashamed ⁵⁰  but that with complete boldness, even now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether I live or die. ⁵¹  1:21 For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. 1:22 Now if I am to go on living in the body, ⁵²  this will mean productive work ⁵³  for me, yet I don’t know which I prefer: ⁵⁴  1:23 I feel torn between the two, ⁵⁵  because I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, 1:24 but it is more vital for your sake that I remain ⁵⁶  in the body. ⁵⁷ 

James 1:4

1:4 And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything.

[19:4]  ¹ tn Or “broom tree” (also in v. 5).

[19:4]  ² tn Heb “and asked with respect to his life to die.”

[19:4]  ³ tn Heb “fathers.”

[3:20]  ⁴ sn Since he has survived birth, Job wonders why he could not have died a premature death. He wonders why God gives light and life to those who are in misery. His own condition throws gloom over life, and so he poses the question first generally, for many would prefer death to misery (20-22); then he comes to the individual, himself, who would prefer death (23). He closes his initial complaint with some depictions of his suffering that afflicts him and gives him no rest (24-26).

[3:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:20]  ⁶ tn The verb is the simple imperfect, expressing the progressive imperfect nuance. But there is no formal subject to the verb, prompting some translations to make it passive in view of the indefinite subject (so, e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV). Such a passive could be taken as a so-called “divine passive” by which God is the implied agent. Job clearly means God here, but he stops short of naming him (see also the note on “God” earlier in this verse).

[3:20]  ⁷ sn In v. 10 the word was used to describe the labor and sorrow that comes from it; here the one in such misery is called the עָמֵל (’amel, “laborer, sufferer”).

[3:20]  ⁸ tn The second colon now refers to people in general because of the plural construct מָרֵי נָפֶשׁ (mare nafesh, “those bitter of soul/life”). One may recall the use of מָרָה (marah, “bitter”) by Naomi to describe her pained experience as a poor widow in Ruth 1:20, or the use of the word to describe the bitter oppression inflicted on Israel by the Egyptians (Exod 1:14). Those who are “bitter of soul” are those whose life is overwhelmed with painful experiences and suffering.

[3:21]  ⁹ tn The verse simply begins with the participle in apposition to the expressions in the previous verse describing those who are bitter. The preposition is added from the context.

[3:21]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is the Piel participle of חָכָה (khakhah, “to wait for” someone; Yahweh is the object in Isa 8:17; 64:3; Ps 33:20). Here death is the supreme hope of the miserable and the suffering.

[3:21]  ¹¹ tn The verse simply has the form אֵין (’en, “there is not”) with a pronominal suffix and a conjunction – “and there is not it” or “and it is not.” The LXX and the Vulgate add a verb to explain this form: “and obtain it not.”

[3:21]  ¹² tn The parallel verb is now a preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive; it therefore has the nuance of a characteristic perfect or gnomic perfect – the English present tense.

[3:22]  ¹³ tn Here too the form is the participle in apposition “to him who is in misery” in v. 20. It continues the description of those who are destitute and would be delighted to die.

[3:22]  ¹⁴ tn The Syriac has “and gather themselves together,” possibly reading גִּיל (gil, “rejoicing”) as גַּל (gal, “heap”). Some have tried to emend the text to make the word mean “heap” or “mound,” as in a funerary mound. While one could argue for a heap of stones as a funerary mound, the passage has already spoken of digging a grave, which would be quite different. And while such a change would make a neater parallelism in the verse, there is no reason to force such; the idea of “jubilation” fits the tenor of the whole verse easily enough and there is no reason to change it. A similar expression is found in Hos 9:1, which says, “rejoice not, O Israel, with jubilation.” Here the idea then is that these sufferers would rejoice “to the point of jubilation” at death.

[3:22]  ¹⁵ tn This sentence also parallels an imperfect verb with the substantival participle of the first colon. It is translated as an English present tense.

[3:22]  ¹⁶ tn The particle could be “when” or “because” in this verse.

[3:22]  ¹⁷ sn The expression “when they find a grave” means when they finally die. The verse describes the relief and rest that the sufferer will obtain when the long-awaited death is reached.

[6:8]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew expresses the desire (desiderative clause) with “who will give?” (see GKC 477 §151.d).

[6:8]  ¹⁹ tn The verb בּוֹא (bo’, “go”) has the sense of “to be realized; to come to pass; to be fulfilled.” The optative “Who will give [that] my request be realized?” is “O that my request would be realized.”

[6:8]  ²⁰ tn The text has תִקְוָתִי (tiqvati, “hope”). There is no reason to change the text to “my desire” (as Driver and others do) if the word is interpreted metonymically – it means “what I hope for.” What Job hopes for and asks for is death.

[6:9]  ²¹ tn The verb יָאַל (ya’al) in the Hiphil means “to be willing, to consent, to decide.” It is here the jussive followed by the dependent verb with a (ו) vav: “that God would be willing and would crush me” means “to crush me.” Gesenius, however, says that the conjunction introduces coordination rather than subordination; he says the principal idea is introduced in the second verb, the first verb containing the definition of the manner of the action (see GKC 386 §120.d).

[6:9]  ²² tn The verb is used for loosening shoe straps in Isa 58:6, and of setting prisoners free in Pss 105:20 and 146:7. Job thinks that God’s hand has been restrained for some reason, and so desires that God be free to destroy him.

[6:9]  ²³ tn The final verb is an imperfect (or jussive) following the jussive (of נָתַר, natar); it thus expresses the result (“and then” or “so that”) or the purpose (“in order that”). Job longs for death, but it must come from God.

[6:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and cut me off.” The LXX reads this verse as “Let the Lord begin and wound me, but let him not utterly destroy me.” E. Dhorme (Job, 81) says the LXX is a paraphrase based on a pun with “free hand.” Targum Job has, “God has begun to make me poor; may he free his hand and make me rich,” apparently basing the reading on a metaphorical interpretation.

[6:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and it will/may be yet my comfort.” The comfort or consolation that he seeks, that he wishes for, is death. The next colon in the verse simply intensifies this thought, for he affirms if that should happen he would rejoice, in spite of what death involves. The LXX, apparently confusing letters (reading עִיר [’ir, “city”] instead of עוֹד [’od, “yet”], which then led to the mistake in the next colon, חֵילָה [khelah, “its wall”] for חִילָה [khilah, “suffering”]), has “Let the grave be my city, upon the walls of which I have leaped.”

[6:10]  ²⁶ tn In the apodosis of conditional clauses (which must be supplied from the context preceding), the cohortative expresses the consequence (see GKC 320 §108.d).

[6:10]  ²⁷ tn The Piel verb סִלֵּד (silled) is a hapax legomenon. BDB 698 s.v. סָלַד gives the meaning “to spring [i.e., jump] for joy,” which would certainly fit the passage. Others have emended the text, but unnecessarily. The LXX “I jumped” and Targum Job’s “exult” support the sense in the dictionaries, although the jumping is for joy and not over a wall (as the LXX has). D. J. A. Clines (Job [WBC], 159) follows Driver in thinking this is untenable, choosing a meaning “recoiled in pain” for the line.

[6:10]  ²⁸ tn The word חִילָה (khilah) also occurs only here, but is connected to the verb חִיל / חוּל (khil / khul, “to writhe in pain”). E. Dhorme says that by extension the meaning denotes the cause of this trembling or writhing – terrifying pain. The final clause, לֹא יַחְמוֹל (lo’ yakhmol, “it has no pity”), serves as a kind of epithet, modifying “pain” in general. If that pain has no pity or compassion, it is a ruthless pain (E. Dhorme, Job, 82).

[6:10]  ²⁹ tn The כִּי (ki, “for”) functions here to explain “my comfort” in the first colon; the second colon simply strengthens the first.

[6:10]  ³⁰ sn The “words” are the divine decrees of God’s providence, the decisions that he makes in his dealings with people. Job cannot conceal these – he knows what they are. What Job seems to mean by this clause in this verse is that there is nothing that would hinder his joy of dying for he has not denied or disobeyed God’s plan.

[6:10]  ³¹ tn Several commentators delete the colon as having no meaning in the verse, and because (in their view) it is probably the addition of an interpolator who wants to make Job sound more pious. But Job is at least consoling himself that he is innocent, and at the most anticipating a worth-while afterlife (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 60).

[7:15]  ³² tn The word נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is often translated “soul.” But since Hebrew thought does not make such a distinction between body and soul, it is usually better to translate it with “person.” When a suffix is added to the word, then that pronoun would serve as the better translation, as here with “my soul” = “I” (meaning with every fiber of my being).

[7:15]  ³³ tn The verb בָּחַר (bakhar, “choose”) followed by the preposition בּ (bet) can have the sense of “prefer.”

[7:15]  ³⁴ tn The meaning of the term מַחֲנָק (makhanaq, “strangling”), a hapax legomenon, is clear enough; the verb חָנַק (khanaq) in the Piel means “to strangle” (Nah 2:13), and in the Niphal “to strangle oneself” (2 Sam 17:23). This word has tempted some commentators to take נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) in a very restricted sense of “throat.”

[7:15]  ³⁵ tn The conjunction “and” is supplied in the translation. “Death” could also be taken in apposition to “strangling,” providing the outcome of the strangling.

[7:15]  ³⁶ tn This is one of the few words recognizable in the LXX: “You will separate life from my spirit, and yet keep my bones from death.”

[7:15]  ³⁷ tn The comparative min (מִן) after the verb “choose” will here have the idea of preferring something before another (see GKC 429-30 §133.b).

[7:15]  ³⁸ tn The word מֵעַצְמוֹתָי (me’atsmotay) means “more than my bones” (= life or being). The line is poetic; “bones” is often used in scripture metonymically for the whole living person, so there is no need here for conjectural emendation. Nevertheless, there have been several suggestions made. The simplest and most appealing for those who desire a change is the repointing to מֵעַצְּבוֹתָי (me’atsÿvotay, “my sufferings,” adopted by NAB, JB, Moffatt, Driver-Gray, E. Dhorme, H. H. Rowley, and others). Driver obtains this idea by positing a new word based on Arabic without changing the letters; it means “great” – but he has to supply the word “sufferings.”

[4:3]  ³⁹ tn Heb “take my life from me.”

[4:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “better my death than my life.”

[4:8]  ⁴¹ tn Or “appointed.” See preceding note on v. 7.

[4:8]  ⁴² tc The MT adjective חֲרִישִׁית (kharishit, “autumnal”) is a hapax legomenon with an unclear meaning (BDB 362 s.v. חֲרִישִׁי); therefore, the BHS editors propose a conjectural emendation to the adjective חֲרִיפִית (kharifit, “autumnal”) from the noun חֹרֶף (khoref, “autumn”; see BDB 358 s.v. חרֶף). However, this emendation would also create a hapax legomenon and it would be no more clear than relating the MT’s חֲרִישִׁית to I חָרַשׁ (kharash, “to plough” [in autumn harvest]).

[4:8]  ⁴³ tn Heb “attacked” or “smote.”

[4:8]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “he asked his soul to die.”

[4:8]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “better my death than my life.”

[4:9]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “Does it burn so thoroughly to you?” or “Does it burn rightly to you?” See note on this expression in v. 4.

[4:9]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “It thoroughly burns to me” or “It rightly burns to me.”

[4:9]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “unto death.” The phrase עַד־מָוֶת (’ad-mavet, “unto death”) is an idiomatic expression meaning “to the extreme” or simply “extremely [angry]” (HALOT 563 s.v. מָוֶת 1.c). The noun מָוֶת (“death”) is often used as an absolute superlative with a negative sense, similar to the English expression “bored to death” (IBHS 267-69 §14.5). For example, “his soul was vexed to death” (לָמוּת, lamut) means that he could no longer endure it (Judg 16:16), and “love is as strong as death” (כַמָּוֶת, kammavet) means love is irresistible or exceedingly strong (Song 8:6). Here the expression “I am angry unto death” (עַד־מָוֶת) means that Jonah could not be more angry. Unfortunately, this idiomatic expression has gone undetected by virtually every other major English version to date (KJV, NKJV, RSV, NRSV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NJB, JPS, NJPS). The only English version that comes close to representing the idiom correctly is BBE: “I have a right to be truly angry.”

[1:20]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “according to my eager expectation and hope.” The κατά (kata) phrase is taken as governing the following ὅτι (Joti) clause (“that I will not be ashamed…”); the idea could be expressed more verbally as “I confidently hope that I will not be ashamed…”

[1:20]  ⁵⁰ tn Or possibly, “be intimidated, be put to shame.”

[1:20]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “whether by life or by death.”

[1:22]  ⁵² tn Grk “flesh.”

[1:22]  ⁵³ tn Grk “fruit of work”; the genitive ἔργου (ergou) is taken as an attributed genitive in which the head noun, καρπός (karpos), functions attributively (cf. ExSyn 89-91).

[1:22]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “what I shall prefer.” The Greek verb αἱρέω (Jairew) could also mean “choose,” but in this context such a translation is problematic for it suggests that Paul could perhaps choose suicide (cf. L&N 30.86).

[1:23]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “I am hard-pressed between the two.” Cf. L&N 30.18.

[1:24]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.”

[1:24]  ⁵⁷ tn Grk “the flesh.”