Job 3:11
in Job 3Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me?
KJV
Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
⋯
This verse in Job 3
Commentary
8 notes on this verseMORAL INTERPRETATION. Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck? Be the thought far from us, that blessed Job, who was endued with such high spiritual knowledge, and who had such a witness of praise from the Judge within, should wish that he had perished in abortive birth!
This site's exposition
Why did I not perish at birth
on Job 3:11-13
The curse gives way to a second movement, asking why Job was let live past that day at all. "Why were there knees to receive me" recalls the custom, found by Gill and Clarke, of a newborn set on the father's knees. Job wishes the welcome itself undone.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Do not be amazed when I tell you that Job did not speak these words. I mistake him for another. These are words that I lend to Job and are contrary to his benevolence and profound goodness. In fact, Job had no desire to say anything of the sort. He suffered righteously what he was suffering, so that he reasonably and wisely said that "he was not born." This is exactly what Christ himself said about Judas: "It would have been better for that man if he had not been born." And Job says much the same thing: "Why was I born? It would have been better if I had not been born."
The Medieval Church1 voice
After Job has cursed the days of his birth and the night of his conception to show that he detested from the beginning of his life, he now shows that he detests from the preservation of his life. With these remarks he shows more clearly …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
To desire to die that we may be with Christ, that we may be free from sin, and that we may be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, is the effect and evidence of grace; but to desire to die only that we may be quiet in the grave, and delivered from the troubles of this life, savours of corruption.
Why died I not from the womb?....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Why died I not from the womb? - Why did I not die as soon as I was born? Why were any pains taken to keep me alive? The suggestion of this question leads Job in the following verses into the beautiful description, of what he would have been if he had then died. He complains, therefore, that any pains were taken by his friends to keep him alive, and that he was not suffered peacefully to expire.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Why died I not from the womb - As the other circumstance did not take place, why was I not still-born, without the possibility of reviviscence? or, as this did not occur, why did I not die as soon as born? These three things appear to me to be clearly intended here: - 1. Dying in the womb, or never coming to maturity, as in the case of an abortion. 2. Being still-born, without ever being able to breathe. 3. Or, if born alive, dying within a short time after. And to these states he seems to refer in the following verses.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Why did I not die from the womb? why was I not ready to die immediately upon my emergence from the womb?
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
For He did not shut He Who was able to shut. This too is one of the verses that resemble “the night when one said” (verse 2).
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לָ֤מָּה | lamah | <to> why? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| לֹּ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| מֵרֶ֣חֶם | merechem | from [the] womb | H7358 → | 26 times |
| אָמ֑וּת | ʾamut | did I die | H4191 → | 839 times |
| מִבֶּ֖טֶן | mibeten | from [the] belly | H990 → | 72 times |
| יָצָ֣אתִי | yatzati | I came forth | H3318 → | 1067 times |
| וְאֶגְוָֽע׃ | veegva' | and I may expire? | H1478 → | 24 times |
לָ֤מָּה<to> why?
lamahH4100 →752 times
לֹּ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
מֵרֶ֣חֶםfrom [the] womb
merechemH7358 →26 times
אָמ֑וּתdid I die
ʾamutH4191 →839 times
מִבֶּ֖טֶןfrom [the] belly
mibetenH990 →72 times
יָצָ֣אתִיI came forth
yatzatiH3318 →1067 times
וְאֶגְוָֽע׃and I may expire?
veegva'H1478 →24 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 71:6I have leaned on You since birth; You pulled me from my mother’s womb. My praise is always for You.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
- Psalms 22:9–10
Yet You brought me forth from the womb; You made me secure at my mother’s breast.
- Psalms 139:15–16
My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
- Galatians 1:15
But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased
- Isaiah 49:1
Listen to Me, O islands; pay attention, O distant peoples: The LORD called Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me.
- Jeremiah 1:5
Through
Isaiah 46:3“Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 1:31
and in the wilderness, where the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way by which you traveled until you reached this place.”
- Isaiah 51:7
Listen to Me, you who know what is right, you people with My law in your hearts: Do not fear the scorn of men; do not be broken by their insults.
- Psalms 71:6
I have leaned on You since birth; You pulled me from my mother’s womb. My praise is always for You.
- Deuteronomy 1:31
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book IV; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 3:11A-16B; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.