Job 3:16
in Job 3Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light.
KJV
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
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This verse in Job 3
Commentary
10 notes on this verseOr as a hidden untimely birth - An early miscarriage, which was scarcely perceptible by the parent herself; and in this case he had not been - he had never had the distinguishable form of a human being, whether male or female. As infants - Little ones; those farther advanced in maturity, but miscarried long before the time of birth.
This site's exposition
with kings and counselors of the earth
on Job 3:14-19
In Job's grave, kings lie beside a stillborn child, the greatest men he can name and the least death he can imagine at one rest. "There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest" is the chapter's most quoted line, a longing for an end to trouble.
This site's exposition
like a stillborn child
Barnes sets the stillborn child beside Psalm 58:8, where the same figure pictures a life that never sees the sun. John Chrysostom notes that Job compares himself to the lowest thing he can name, lest he seem proud. The verse returns to the wish of verse 11.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"Or like a stillborn child that never sees the light," he says. Notice how, in order that he may not appear to be arrogant, he even compares himself with a stillborn child, so absolutely wretched and pitiful is he.
The Medieval Church2 voices
So after he shows that he should not have desired to have preserved his life after his birth, he demonstrates as a consequence that he should not have desired to preserve his life in leaving the womb and be born. In this he explains what …
MORAL INTERPRETATION. Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. An abortive child, because it is born before the full period, being dead is forthwith put out of sight. Whom then does the holy man term 'abortives,' with whom he might 'have been at rest,' he reflects, saving all the Elect, who from the beginning of the world lived before the time of the Redemption, and yet studied to mortify themselves to this world.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
"And therefore," says Job, "would I had lain there in the dust, rather than to lie here in the ashes!" 2. His condition would have been much better than now it was (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Or as an hidden untimely birth,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Or as an hidden untimely birth - As an abortion which is hid, or concealed; that is, which is soon removed from the sight. So the Psalmist, Psa 58:8: As a snail which melteth, let thom dissolve; As the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. Septuagint ἔκτρωμα ektrōma, the same word which is used by Paul in 1Co 15:8, with reference to himself; see the notes at that place. I had not been - I should have perished; I should not have been a man, as I now am, subject to calamity. The meaning is, that he would have been taken away and concealed, as such an untimely birth is, and that he would never have been numbered among the living and the suffering. As infants which never saw light - Job expresses here no opinion of their future condition, or on the question whether such infants had immortal souls. He is simply saying that his lot would have been as theirs was, and that he would have been saved from the sorrows which he now experienced.
Modern Voices1 voice
But it is a better exercise still to remember how all things have had this hair-breadth escape: everything has been saved from a wreck. Every man has had one horrible adventure: as a hidden untimely birth he had not been, as infants that never see …
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| א֤וֹ | ʾo | or | H176 → | 321 times |
| כְנֵ֣פֶל | khenefel | like a miscarriage | H5309 → | |
| טָ֭מוּן | tamun | hidden | H2934 → | 31 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| אֶהְיֶ֑ה | ʾehyeh | was I? | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| כְּ֝עֹלְלִ֗ים | keolelim | like children | H5768 → | |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | [who] not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| רָ֥אוּ | rau | they have seen | H7200 → | 1300 times |
| אֽוֹר׃ | ʾor | light | H216 → | 121 times |
א֤וֹor
ʾoH176 →321 times
כְנֵ֣פֶלlike a miscarriage
khenefelH5309 →
טָ֭מוּןhidden
tamunH2934 →31 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
אֶהְיֶ֑הwas I?
ʾehyehH1961 →3559 times
כְּ֝עֹלְלִ֗יםlike children
keolelimH5768 →
לֹא־[who] not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
רָ֥אוּthey have seen
rauH7200 →1300 times
אֽוֹר׃light
ʾorH216 →121 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
1 Corinthians 15:8And last of all He appeared to me also, as to one of untimely birth.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 9:1
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you yourselves not my workmanship in the Lord?
- Acts 26:16
‘But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen from Me and what I…
- Acts 18:9
One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking; do not be silent.
- Acts 22:18
and saw the Lord saying to me, ‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem quickly, because the people here will not accept your testimony about Me.’
- Acts 9:17
So Ananias went to the house, and when he arrived, he placed his hands on Saul. “Brother Saul,” he said, “the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming…
- 1 Corinthians 9:1
Through
Psalms 58:8Like a slug that dissolves in its slime, like a woman’s stillborn child, may they never see the sun.
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 6:3
A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial,…
- Ecclesiastes 6:3
Through
Ecclesiastes 6:3A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial,…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 22:19
He will be buried like a donkey, dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.
- Ecclesiastes 4:3
But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.
- Jeremiah 22:19
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Ch. 4: The Ethics of Elfland (1908); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book IV; John Chrysostom, Commentary on Job; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 3:20-23; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.