Job 3:20

Longing for Death ¹ 

3:20 “Why does God ²  give ³  light to one who is in misery, ⁴ 

and life to those ⁵  whose soul is bitter,

Job 17:12

17:12 These men ⁶  change ⁷  night into day;

they say, ⁸  ‘The light is near

in the face of darkness.’ ⁹ 

Job 18:5

18:5 “Yes, ¹⁰  the lamp ¹¹  of the wicked is extinguished;

his flame of fire ¹²  does not shine.

Job 22:28

22:28 Whatever you decide ¹³  on a matter,

it will be established for you,

and light will shine on your ways.

Job 31:26

31:26 if I looked at the sun ¹⁴  when it was shining,

and the moon advancing as a precious thing,

Job 36:32

36:32 With his hands ¹⁵  he covers ¹⁶  the lightning,

and directs it against its target.

Job 37:15

37:15 Do you know how God commands them, ¹⁷ 

how he makes lightning flash in his storm cloud? ¹⁸ 

Job 41:18

41:18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;

its eyes are like the red glow ¹⁹  of dawn.

[3:20]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:20]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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.

[17:12]  ⁶ tn The verse simply has the plural, “they change.” But since this verse seems to be a description of his friends, a clarification of the referent in the translation is helpful.

[17:12]  ⁷ tn The same verb שִׂים (sim, “set”) is used this way in Isa 5:20: “…who change darkness into light.”

[17:12]  ⁸ tn The rest of the verse makes better sense if it is interpreted as what his friends say.

[17:12]  ⁹ tn This expression is open to alternative translations: (1) It could mean that they say in the face of darkness, “Light is near.” (2) It could also mean “The light is near the darkness” or “The light is nearer than the darkness.”

[18:5]  ¹¹ tn Hebrew גַּם (gam, “also; moreover”), in view of what has just been said.

[18:5]  ¹² sn The lamp or the light can have a number of uses in the Bible. Here it is probably an implied metaphor for prosperity and happiness, for the good life itself.

[18:5]  ¹³ tn The expression is literally “the flame of his fire,” but the pronominal suffix qualifies the entire bound construction. The two words together intensify the idea of the flame.

[22:28]  ¹⁶ tn The word is גָּזַר (gazar, “to cut”), in the sense of deciding a matter.

[31:26]  ²¹ tn Heb “light”; but parallel to the moon it is the sun. This section speaks of false worship of the sun and the moon.

[36:32]  ²⁶ tn R. Gordis (Job, 422) prefers to link this word with the later Hebrew word for “arch,” not “hands.”

[36:32]  ²⁷ tn Because the image might mean that God grabs the lightning and hurls it like a javelin (cf. NLT), some commentators want to change “covers” to other verbs. Dhorme has “lifts” (נִשָּׂא [nissa’] for כִּסָּה [kissah]). This fit the idea of God directing the lightning bolts.

[37:15]  ³¹ tn The verb is בְּשׂוּם (bÿsum, from שִׂים [sim, “set”]), so the idea is how God lays [or sets] [a command] for them. The suffix is proleptic, to be clarified in the second colon.

[37:15]  ³² tn Dhorme reads this “and how his stormcloud makes lightning to flash forth?”

[41:18]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the eyelids,” but it represents the early beams of the dawn as the cover of night lifts.