Ecclesiastes 6:3-5

6:3 Even if a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years –

even if he lives a long, long time, ¹  but cannot enjoy his prosperity –

even if he were to live forever ²  –

I would say, “A stillborn child ³  is better off than he is!” ⁴ 

6:4 Though the stillborn child ⁵  came into the world ⁶  for no reason ⁷  and departed into darkness,

though its name is shrouded in darkness, ⁸ 

6:5 though it never saw the light of day ⁹  nor knew anything, ¹⁰ 

yet it has more rest ¹¹  than that man –

Job 3:10-16

3:10 because it ¹²  did not shut the doors ¹³  of my mother’s womb on me, ¹⁴ 

nor did it hide trouble ¹⁵  from my eyes!

Job Wishes He Had Died at Birth ¹⁶ 

3:11 “Why did I not ¹⁷  die ¹⁸  at birth, ¹⁹ 

and why did I not expire

as ²⁰  I came out of the womb?

3:12 Why did the knees welcome me, ²¹ 

and why were there ²²  two breasts ²³ 

that I might nurse at them? ²⁴ 

3:13 For now ²⁵  I would be lying down

and ²⁶  would be quiet, ²⁷ 

I would be asleep and then at peace ²⁸ 

3:14 with kings and counselors of the earth

who built for themselves places now desolate, ²⁹ 

3:15 or with princes who possessed gold, ³⁰ 

who filled their palaces ³¹  with silver.

3:16 Or why ³²  was ³³  I not buried ³⁴ 

like a stillborn infant, ³⁵ 

like infants ³⁶  who have never seen the light? ³⁷ 

Job 10:18-19

An Appeal for Relief

10:18 “Why then did you bring me out from the womb?

I should have died ³⁸ 

and no eye would have seen me!

10:19 I should have been as though I had never existed; ³⁹ 

I should have been carried

right from the womb to the grave!

Jeremiah 20:17-18

20:17 For he did not kill me before I came from the womb,

making my pregnant mother’s womb my grave forever. ⁴⁰ 

20:18 Why did I ever come forth from my mother’s womb?

All I experience is trouble and grief,

and I spend my days in shame. ⁴¹ 

Matthew 24:19

24:19 Woe ⁴²  to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days!

Luke 23:29

23:29 For this is certain: ⁴³  The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’ ⁴⁴ 

[6:3]  ¹ tn Heb “the days of his years are many.”

[6:3]  ² tn Heb “he has no burial.” The phrase וְגַם־קְבוּרָה לֹא־הָיְתָה (vÿgam-qÿvurah lo’-haytah, “he even has no burial”) is traditionally treated as part of a description of the man’s sorry final state, that is, he is deprived of even a proper burial (KJV, NEB, RSV, NRSV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NJPS, MLB, Moffatt). However, the preceding parallel lines suggest that this a hyperbolic protasis: “If he were to live one hundred years…even if he were never buried [i.e., were to live forever]….” A similar idea occurs elsewhere (e.g., Pss 49:9; 89:48). See D. R. Glenn, “Ecclesiastes,” BKCOT, 990.

[6:3]  ³ tn The noun נֶפֶל (nefel) denotes “miscarriage” and by metonymy of effect, “stillborn child” (e.g., Ps 58:9; Job 3:16; Eccl 6:3); cf. HALOT 711. The noun is related to the verb נָפַל (nafal, “to fall,” but occasionally “to be born”; see Isa 26:18); cf. HALOT 710 s.v. נפל 5.

[6:3]  ⁴ sn The point of 6:3-6 is that the futility of unenjoyed wealth is worse than the tragedy of being stillborn.

[6:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (“the stillborn child”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:4]  ⁶ tn The phrase “into the world” does not appear in Hebrew, but is added in the translation for clarity.

[6:4]  ⁷ sn The birth of the stillborn was in vain – it did it no good to be born.

[6:4]  ⁸ sn The name of the stillborn is forgotten.

[6:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “it never saw the sun.”

[6:5]  ¹⁰ tn The word “anything” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:5]  ¹¹ sn The Hebrew term translated rest here refers to freedom from toil, anxiety, and misery – part of the miserable misfortune that the miserly man of wealth must endure.

[3:10]  ¹² tn The subject is still “that night.” Here, at the end of this first section, Job finally expresses the crime of that night – it did not hinder his birth.

[3:10]  ¹³ sn This use of doors for the womb forms an implied comparison; the night should have hindered conception (see Gen 20:18 and 1 Sam 1:5).

[3:10]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew has simply “my belly [= womb].” The suffix on the noun must be objective – it was the womb of Job’s mother in which he lay before his birth. See however N. C. Habel, “The Dative Suffix in Job 33:13,” Bib 63 (1982): 258-59, who thinks it is deliberately ambiguous.

[3:10]  ¹⁵ tn The word עָמָל (’amal) means “work, heavy labor, agonizing labor, struggle” with the idea of fatigue and pain.

[3:11]  ¹⁶ sn Job follows his initial cry with a series of rhetorical questions. His argument runs along these lines: since he was born (v. 10), the next chance he had of escaping this life of misery would have been to be still born (vv. 11-12, 16). In vv. 13-19 Job considers death as falling into a peaceful sleep in a place where there is no trouble. The high frequency of rhetorical questions in series is a characteristic of the Book of Job that sets it off from all other portions of the OT. The effect is primarily dramatic, creating a tension that requires resolution. See W. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry, 340-41.

[3:11]  ¹⁷ tn The negative only occurs with the first clause, but it extends its influence to the parallel second clause (GKC 483 §152.z).

[3:11]  ¹⁸ tn The two verbs in this verse are both prefix conjugations; they are clearly referring to the past and should be classified as preterites. E. Dhorme (Job, 32) notes that the verb “I came out” is in the perfect to mark its priority in time in relation to the other verbs.

[3:11]  ¹⁹ tn The translation “at birth” is very smooth, but catches the meaning and avoids the tautology in the verse. The line literally reads “from the womb.” The second half of the verse has the verb “I came out/forth” which does double duty for both parallel lines. The second half uses “belly” for the womb.

[3:11]  ²⁰ tn The two halves of the verse use the prepositional phrases (“from the womb” and “from the belly I went out”) in the temporal sense of “on emerging from the womb.”

[3:12]  ²¹ tn The verb קִדְּמוּנִי (qiddÿmuni) is the Piel from קָדַם (qadam), meaning “to come before; to meet; to prevent.” Here it has the idea of going to meet or welcome someone. In spite of various attempts to connect the idea to the father or to adoption rites, it probably simply means the mother’s knees that welcome the child for nursing. See R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 42.

[3:12]  ²² tn There is no verb in the second half of the verse. The idea simply has, “and why breasts that I might suck?”

[3:12]  ²³ sn The commentaries mention the parallel construction in the writings of Ashurbanipal: “You were weak, Ashurbanipal, you who sat on the knees of the goddess, queen of Nineveh; of the four teats that were placed near to your mouth, you sucked two and you hid your face in the others” (M. Streck, Assurbanipal [VAB], 348).

[3:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “that I might suckle.” The verb is the Qal imperfect of יָנַק (yanaq, “suckle”). Here the clause is subordinated to the preceding question and so function as a final imperfect.

[3:13]  ²⁵ tn The word עַתָּה (’attah, “now”) may have a logical nuance here, almost with the idea of “if that had been the case…” (IBHS 667-68 §39.3.4f). However, the temporal “now” is retained in translation since the imperfect verb following two perfects “suggests what Job’s present state would be if he had had the quiet of a still birth” (J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 95, n. 23). Cf. GKC 313 §106.p.

[3:13]  ²⁶ tn The copula on the verb indicates a sequence for the imperfect: “and then I would….” In the second half of the verse it is paralleled by “then.”

[3:13]  ²⁷ tn The text uses a combination of the perfect (lie down/sleep) and imperfect (quiet/rest). The particle עַתָּה (’attah, “now”) gives to the perfect verb its conditional nuance. It presents actions in the past that are not actually accomplished but seen as possible (GKC 313 §106.p).

[3:13]  ²⁸ tn The last part uses the impersonal verb “it would be at rest for me.”

[3:14]  ²⁹ tn The difficult term חֳרָבוֹת (khoravot) is translated “desolate [places]”. The LXX confused the word and translated it “who gloried in their swords.” One would expect a word for monuments, or tombs (T. K. Cheyne emended it to “everlasting tombs” [“More Critical Gleanings in Job,” ExpTim 10 (1898/99): 380-83]). But this difficult word is of uncertain etymology and therefore cannot simply be made to mean “royal tombs.” The verb means “be desolate, solitary.” In Isa 48:21 there is the clear sense of a desert. That is the meaning of Assyrian huribtu. It may be that like the pyramids of Egypt these tombs would have been built in the desert regions. Or it may describe how they rebuilt ruins for themselves. He would be saying then that instead of lying here in pain and shame if he had died he would be with the great ones of the earth. Otherwise, the word could be interpreted as a metonymy of effect, indicating that the once glorious tomb now is desolate. But this does not fit the context – the verse is talking about the state of the great ones after their death.

[3:15]  ³⁰ tn The expression simply has “or with princes gold to them.” The noun is defined by the noun clause serving as a relative clause (GKC 486 §155.e).

[3:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “filled their houses.” There is no reason here to take “houses” to mean tombs; the “houses” refer to the places the princes lived (i.e., palaces). The reference is not to the practice of burying treasures with the dead. It is simply saying that if Job had died he would have been with the rich and famous in death.

[3:16]  ³² tn The verb is governed by the interrogative of v. 12 that introduces this series of rhetorical questions.

[3:16]  ³³ tn The verb is again the prefix conjugation, but the narrative requires a past tense, or preterite.

[3:16]  ³⁴ tn Heb “hidden.” The LXX paraphrases: “an untimely birth, proceeding from his mother’s womb.”

[3:16]  ³⁵ tn The noun נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”) is the abortive thing that falls (hence the verb) from the womb before the time is ripe (Ps 58:9). The idiom using the verb “to fall” from the womb means to come into the world (Isa 26:18). The epithet טָמוּן (tamun, “hidden”) is appropriate to the verse. The child comes in vain, and disappears into the darkness – it is hidden forever.

[3:16]  ³⁶ tn The word עֹלְלִים (’olÿlim) normally refers to “nurslings.” Here it must refer to infants in general since it refers to a stillborn child.

[3:16]  ³⁷ tn The relative clause does not have the relative pronoun; the simple juxtaposition of words indicates that it is modifying the infants.

[10:18]  ³⁸ tn The two imperfect verbs in this section are used to stress regrets for something which did not happen (see GKC 317 §107.n).

[10:19]  ³⁹ sn This means “If only I had never come into existence.”

[20:17]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “because he did not kill me from the womb so my mother might be to me for my grave and her womb eternally pregnant.” The sentence structure has been modified and the word “womb” moved from the last line to the next to the last line for English stylistic purposes and greater clarity.

[20:18]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Why did I come forth from the womb to see [= so that I might see] trouble and grief and that my days might be consumed in shame.”

[24:19]  ⁴² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[23:29]  ⁴³ tn Grk “For behold.”

[23:29]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not nursed!”