Job 3:6
in Job 3If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year; may it never be entered in any of the months.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it: Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not come into the number of the months.
KJV
As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
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This verse in Job 3
Commentary
10 notes on this verseAs for that night, let darkness seize upon it - I think the Targum has hit the sense of this whole verse: “Let darkness seize upon that night; let it not be reckoned among the annual festivals; in the number of the months of the calendar let it not be computed.” Some understand the word אפל ophel as signifying a dark storm; hence the Vulgate, tenebrosus turbo, “a dark whirlwind.” And hence Coverdale, Let the darck storme overcome that night, let it not be reckoned amonge the dayes off the yeare, nor counted in the monethes.
This site's exposition
May the day of my birth perish
on Job 3:3-6
Job's curse runs backward through the words of creation, Genesis 1 spoken in reverse over a single day. Verse 5 piles up nearly every Hebrew word for darkness the language has. Gill notes the request cannot be granted, since the day has already passed into history and cannot be unmade.
This site's exposition
May it not appear among the days of the year
The Targum, as Clarke reports, asks that the night never be entered among the feasts of the year. Matthew Henry pictures a birthday kept in red letters like a king's, and Job asking that his day of birth be blotted out. Here the night is a person, barred from joy.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church3 voices
After he curses the day of his birth, he next curses the night of his conception using a similar style. First, he attributes to it the reason why the night is rendered very horrible. Since night is frightful in itself because of darkness, the deeper …
MORAL INTERPRETATION. As for that night, let a black tempest seize it. For the awakened spirit of sorrow is like a kind of tempestuous whirlwind. For when a man understands what sin he has committed, when he minutely considers the wickedness of his evil doings, he clouds the mind with sorrow, and the air of quiet joy being agitated, as it were, he sweeps away all the inward tranquillity of his breast, by the whirlwind of penitence.
HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION. As for that night, let a dark whirlwind seize upon it. For it is written, Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. Thus a dark whirlwind seizes upon that night, in that the apostate Angel is by that fearful tempest carried off from before the strict Judge to suffer eternal woe; thus this night is seized by a whirlwind, in that his blind Pride is smitten with a strict visitation. Let it not be joined unto the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months. By year we understand not inapplicably the preaching of supreme grace. For as in a year the period is completed by a connected series of days, so in heavenly grace is a complex life of virtue made complete. By a year too we may understand the multitude of the redeemed. For as the year is produced by a number of days, so by the assemblage of all the righteous there results that countless sum of the Elect. Now Isaiah foretells this year of a completed multitude, in these words; The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek: He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. For 'the acceptable year of the Lord is proclaimed,' in that the future multitude of the faithful is foretold as destined to be illumined with the light of truth. Now what is meant by 'the days,' but the several minds of the Elect? What by the months, but their several Churches, which constitute one Catholic Church? So then let not that night be joined unto the days of the year, neither let it come into the number of the months. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
"Let it be not only not inserted in the calendar in red letters, as the day of the king's nativity useth to be" (and Job was a king, ch. xxix. 25 ), "but let it be erased and blotted out, and buried in oblivion.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
As for that night,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
seize upon it--as its prey, that is, utterly dissolve it. joined unto the days of the year--rather, by poetic personification, "Let it not rejoice in the circle of days and nights and months, which form the circle of years."
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
As for “that night.” Job, having cursed the day, proceeds to utter a malediction on the “night” also; see Job 3:3. This malediction extends to Job 3:9. Let darkness seize upon it - Hebrew, Let it take it. Let deep and horrid darkness seize it as its own. Let no star arise upon it; let it be unbroken and uninterrupted gloom. The word “darkness,” however, does not quite express the force of the original. The word used here אפל 'ôphel is poetic, and denotes darkness more intense than is denoted by the word which is usually rendered “darkness” השׁך chôshek. It is a darkness accompanied with clouds and with a tempest. Herder understands it as meaning, that darkness should seize upon that night and bear it away, so that it should not be joined to the months of the year. So the Chaldee. But the true sense is, that Job wished so deep darkness to possess it, that no star would rise upon it; no light whatever be seen. A night like this Seneca beautifully describes in Agamemnon, verses 465ff: Nox prima coeltum sparserat stellis, Cum subito luna conditur, stellae cadunt; In astra pontus tollitur, et coelum petit. Nec una nox est, densa tenebras obruit Caligo, et Omni luce subducta, fretum Coelumque miscet ... Premunt tenebrae lumina, et dirae stygis Inferna nox est. Let it not be joined unto the days of the year - Margin, “rejoice among.” So Good and Noyes render it. The word used here יחד yı̂chad, according to the present pointing, is the apocopated future of חדה chādâh, “to rejoice, to be glad.” If the pointing were different יחד yâchad it would be the future of יחד yachad, to be one; to be united, or joined to. The Masoretic points are of no authority, and the interpretation which supposes that the word means here to exult or rejoice, is more poetical and beautiful. […]
The words behind it
12 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הַלַּ֥יְלָה | halaylah | the night | H3915 → | 233 times |
| הַהוּא֮ | hahu' | <the> that | H1931 → | 1879 times |
| יִקָּחֵ֪ה֫וּ | yikachehu | let it take it | H3947 → | 966 times |
| אֹ֥פֶל | ʾofel | darkness | H652 → | 9 times |
| אַל־ | ʾal- | may not | H408 → | 724 times |
| יִ֭חַדְּ | yichad | it rejoice | H2302 → | |
| בִּימֵ֣י | bimei | among [the] days of | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| שָׁנָ֑ה | shanah | [the] year | H8141 → | 877 times |
| בְּמִסְפַּ֥ר | bemispar | in [the] number of | H4557 → | 134 times |
| יְ֝רָחִ֗ים | yerachim | [the] months | H3391 → | 12 times |
| אַל־ | ʾal- | may not | H408 → | 724 times |
| יָבֹֽא׃ | yavo' | it come | H935 → | 2568 times |
הַלַּ֥יְלָהthe night
halaylahH3915 →233 times
הַהוּא֮<the> that
hahu'H1931 →1879 times
יִקָּחֵ֪ה֫וּlet it take it
yikachehuH3947 →966 times
אֹ֥פֶלdarkness
ʾofelH652 →9 times
אַל־may not
ʾal-H408 →724 times
יִ֭חַדְּit rejoice
yichadH2302 →
בִּימֵ֣יamong [the] days of
bimeiH3117 →2304 times
שָׁנָ֑ה[the] year
shanahH8141 →877 times
בְּמִסְפַּ֥רin [the] number of
bemisparH4557 →134 times
יְ֝רָחִ֗ים[the] months
yerachimH3391 →12 times
אַל־may not
ʾal-H408 →724 times
יָבֹֽא׃it come
yavo'H935 →2568 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; 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 IV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; 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.