Job 3:13

_FOR NOW SHOULD I HAVE LAIN STILL AND BEEN QUIET, I SHOULD HAVE SLEPT: THEN HAD I BEEN AT REST,_ Lain ... quiet ... slept - a gradation. I should not only have lain, but been quiet and not only been quiet, but slept. Death in Scripture is called sleep (Psalms 13:3); especially in the New Testament, where the Resurrection-awaking is more clearly set forth (1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:10)....

11-19 Job complained of those present at his birth, for their tender attention to him. No creature comes into the world so helpless as man. God's power and providence upheld our frail lives, and his pity and patience spared our forfeited lives. Natural affection is put into parents' hearts by God. To desire to die that we may be with Christ, that we may be free from sin, is the effect and evidence of grace; but to desire to die, only that we may be delivered from the troubles of this life, savours of corruption. It is our wisdom and duty to make the best of that which is, be it living or dying; and so to live to the Lord, and die to the Lord, as in both to be his, Romans 14:8. Observe how Job describes the repose of the grave; There the wicked cease from troubling. When persecutors die, they can no longer persecute. There the weary are at rest: in the grave they rest from all their labo...

Verse Job 3:13. _FOR NOW SHOULD I HAVE LAIN STILL_] In that case I had been insensible; _quiet _- without these overwhelming agitations; _slept _- unconscious of evil; _been at rest _- been out of the reach of calamity and sorrow....

FOR NOW SHOULD I HAVE LAIN STILL - In this verse Job uses four expressions to describe the state in which be would have been if he had been so happy as to have died when an infant. It is evidently a very pleasant subject to him, and he puts it in a great variety of form. He uses thc words which express the most quiet repose, a state of perfect rest, a gentle slumber; and then in the next verses he says, that instead of being in the miserable condition in which he then was, he would have been in the same state with kings and the most illustrious men of the earth. I SHOULD HAVE LAIN STILL - - שׁכב _shâkab_. I should have been “lying down,” as one does who is taking grateful repose. This is a word of less strength than any of those which follow. AND BEEN QUIET - - שׁקט _shâqaṭ_. A word of st

EXPOSITION The "Historical Introduction" ended, we come upon a long colloquy, in which the several _dramatis personae_ speak for themselves, the writer, or compiler, only prefacing each speech with a very few necessary words. The speeches are, one and all of them, metrical; and are well represented in the Revised Version. The first colloquy extends from Job 3:1 to Job 14:22. JOB 3:1 AFTER THIS OPENED JOB HIS MOUTH. The first to take the word is Job, as, indeed, etiquette made necessary, when the visit paid was one of condolence. It can only be conjectured what the feelings were which had kept him silent so long. We may, perhaps, suggest that in the countenances and manner of his fr

FOR NOW SHOULD I HAVE LAIN STILL, AND BEEN QUIET,.... Signifying, that if the above had been his case, if he had died as soon as born, or quickly after, then he would have been laid in the grave, where he would have lain as still as on a bed; for such is the grave to dead bodies as a bed is to those that lie down and sleep upon it; a place of ease and quiet, where there is freedom from all care and thought, from all trouble, anxiety, and distress; nay, more so than on a bed, where there is often tossing to and fro, and great disquietude, but none to the body in the grave, that is still and silent, where there is no uneasiness nor disturbance, see Job 17:13; I SHOULD HAVE SLEPT; soundly and quietly, which persons do not always upon their beds; sometimes they cannot sleep at all, and when they do, they are frequently distressed with uneasy thoughts, frightful dreams, and terrifyi

CHAPTER 3 JOB'S LAMENT _ 1. Job curses the day of his birth (Job 3:1)_ 2. He longs for death (Job 3:10) 3. The reason why (Job 3:24) Job 3:1. The silence is broken by Job. Alas! his lips do not utter praises now, but he cursed the day of his birth. It was a sore trial for Job to look into the faces of these pious friends, in perfect health and strength, and he, even more pious than they, stricken and smitten of God. It was an aggravation of Job's grief and sorrow. But let us notice though Job gives way to his feelings in this passionate outburst, he did not renounce God, nor is there a word of rebellion against Him. All through his a

JOB'S LAMENTATION. Here the later poem begins, and at once we pass into another world. The patient Job of the Volksbuch is gone, and we have instead one who complains bitterly that ever he was born. This cry of misery is thrice repeated, ever in deepening pathos (Job 3:1; Job 3:11; Job 3:20). JOB 3:1. The first cry of misery Would to God I had never been born. This is the idea when Job curses his day, and wishes it blotted out of existence. First he curses the day of his birth and the night of his conception together (Job 3:3) and then each separately, the day in two verses and th

Would God I had died from my birth If he must be born, Job asks, Why he did not die from the womb? his eye turning to the next possibility and chance of escaping sorrow. Had he died he would have been at peace; and the picture of the painless stillness of death fascinates him and he dwells long on it, counting over with a minute particularity all classes, kings and prisoners, slaves and masters, small and great, who there drink deep of a common peace, escaping the unquietness of life, for life upon the earth, however lived, is full of a painful restlessness. The thought of this stillness of death brings a certain calm to the sufferer's mind, and the passionateness of his former words subsides....

2. Asks why he was born (Job 3:11-19) TEXT 3:11-19 11 WHY DIED I NOT FROM THE WOMB? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me? 12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck? 13 For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest, 14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves; 15 Or with princes that had gold, Who filled their houses with silver: 16 Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light. 17 There the wicked cease from troubling; And there the weary are at rest. 18 There the prisoners are at ease together; They hear not the voice of the taskmaster. 19 The small and the great are there: And the servant is free from his master. COMMENT 3:11-19...