Job 3:21
in Job 3who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Who long for death, but it cometh not, And dig for it more than for hid treasures;
KJV
Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
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This verse in Job 3
Commentary
11 notes on this verseDig - Desire with as much earnestness as men dig for treasure: but it is observable, Job durst not do anything to hasten or procure his death: notwithstanding all his miseries, he was contented to wait all the days of his appointed time, 'till his change came, chap. xiv, 14.
This site's exposition
Why is light given to the miserable
on Job 3:20-23
The words "whom God has hedged in" return Satan's word from 1:10 in the opposite sense, the protection the accuser envied becoming the prison. Barnes notes that the echo is the reader's alone to see, since Job never heard the word that opened the case against him.
This site's exposition
who long for death that does not come
Clarke notes that such sufferers long for death more than men who love gold long to strike it rich. Wesley observes that Job did nothing to hasten his own death and waited for his appointed time. He longs for death and leaves it with God.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
In this way Job speaks of "those who long for death," but, he says, "it does not come." That is why the Preacher in Ecclesiastes says, "For everything there is a season" and, in another passage, "O death, how your memory is sweet." When you hear Job's wife suggesting to him, "Curse God, and die," you should not suppose that he did not answer because of his love of life but because of his piety. Indeed he who considered death to be very desirable and saw it as a real goodness when he was allowed to obtain it did not dare speak against God.
The Medieval Church2 voices
He shows that life is given to them uselessly because unhappy men desire its contrary. So he says, "Who," living in bitterness, "long for death, which does not come," that is as quickly as they would like. To show that those who are unhappy wait …
Which long for death, but it cometh not.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
It was Job's folly and weakness to curse his day. We must say of it, This was his infirmity; but good men have sometimes failed in the exercise of those graces which they have been most eminent for, that we may understand that when they are said to be perfect it is meant that they were upright, not that they were sinless.
Bitterness of soul, through spiritual grievances, makes life itself bitter. Why doth he give light? (so it is in the original): he means God, yet does not name him, though the devil had said, "He will curse thee to thy face;" but he tacitly reflects on the divine Providence as unjust and unkind in continuing life when the comforts of life are removed.
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Which long for death, but it cometh not,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Which long for death - They look to it as the end of all their miseries; and long more for a separation from life, than those who love gold do for a rich mine.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Which long for death - Whose pain and anguish are so great that they would regard it as a privilege to die. Much as people dread death, and much as they have occasion to dread what is beyond, yet there is no doubt that this often occurs. Pain becomes so intense, and suffering is so protracted, that they would regard it as a privilege to be permitted to die. Yet that sorrow “must” be intense which prompts to this wish, and usually must be long continued.
The words behind it
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הַֽמְחַכִּ֣ים | hamchakim | those [who] long | H2442 → | |
| לַמָּ֣וֶת | lamavet | for <the> death | H4194 → | 156 times |
| וְאֵינֶ֑נּוּ | veeinenu | and there not [is] it | H369 → | 789 times |
| וַֽ֝יַּחְפְּרֻ֗הוּ | vaiyachperuhu | and they dug for it | H2658 → | 22 times |
| מִמַּטְמוֹנִֽים׃ | mimatmonim | more than hidden treasures | H4301 → |
הַֽמְחַכִּ֣יםthose [who] long
hamchakimH2442 →
לַמָּ֣וֶתfor <the> death
lamavetH4194 →156 times
וְאֵינֶ֑נּוּand there not [is] it
veeinenuH369 →789 times
וַֽ֝יַּחְפְּרֻ֗הוּand they dug for it
vaiyachperuhuH2658 →22 times
מִמַּטְמוֹנִֽים׃more than hidden treasures
mimatmonimH4301 →
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 Kings 19:4while he himself traveled on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life,…
it leads to
- Jonah 4:3
And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Numbers 11:15
If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”
- Jonah 4:3
Through
Revelation 9:6In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them.
it leads to
- Luke 23:30
At that time ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’
- Jeremiah 8:3
And wherever I have banished them, the remnant of this evil family will choose death over life,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
- Revelation 6:16
And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
- Isaiah 2:19
Men will flee to caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth.
- Hosea 10:8
The high places of Aven will be destroyed—it is the sin of Israel; thorns and thistles will overgrow their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall…
- Luke 23:30
Through
Proverbs 2:4if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,
it leads to
- Matthew 13:44
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that…
- Matthew 13:44
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on 10 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 (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book V; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 3:20-23; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.