Job 3 - Introduction

Moved by the sympathising presence of his friends, Job loses his self-control, and breaks out into a passionate cry for death

The expressive gestures of Job's friends betokened the liveliest sympathy, and their silence of seven days indicated how awful they felt his calamity to be. And we often learn how to estimate our own situation from the countenances of others, and the passing movements on the faces around us rule the tide of feeling in our own breasts. From the sentiments which the three friends gave utterance to afterwards we know that very mixed feelings may have led to their silence and dismay, but if so, such a thing was unsuspected by Job. He was so conscious of his own innocence that he never supposed that others could suspect it, and he saw only sympathy and friendship and the reflection of his great misery in his friends" demeanour. Formerly he was able to rebuke the suggestions of the woman, his wife, and restrain himself. But now he is in the presence of men his fellows, the companions of his former prosperity, and his self-control deserts him, and he breaks out into a passionate cry that he might die.

This cry of misery is thrice repeated in the chapter:

Job 3:1. Would God I had never been conceived or born.

Job 3:11. Would God I had died from my birth.

Job 3:20. Why does God continue life to the wretched, who long for death?