Job 3:6

_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._ Seize upon it - as its prey; i:e., utterly dissolve it. JOINED ONTO THE DAYS OF THE YEAR - rather, by poetic personification, 'Let it not rejoice [yichal] in the circle of days and nights, and months, which form the circle of years.'...

1-10 For seven days Job's friends sat by him in silence, without offering consolidation: at the same time Satan assaulted his mind to shake his confidence, and to fill him with hard thoughts of God. The permission seems to have extended to this, as well as to torturing the body. Job was an especial type of Christ, whose inward sufferings, both in the garden and on the cross, were the most dreadful; and arose in a great degree from the assaults of Satan in that hour of darkness. These inward trials show the reason of the change that took place in Job's conduct, from entire submission to the will of God, to the impatience which appears here, and in other parts of the book. The believer, who knows that a few drops of this bitter cup are more dreadful than the sharpest outward afflictions, while he is favoured with a sweet sense of the love and presence of God, will not be surprised to find...

Verse Job 3:6. _AS 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_. Every thing is here personified; _day, night, darkness,_ _shadow of death, cloud_, c. and the same idea of the total extinction of that portion of time, or its being rendered ominous and portentous, is pursued through all these verses, from the _third_ to the _ninth_, in

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

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

AS [FOR] THAT NIGHT,.... The night of conception; Job imprecated evils on the day he was born, now on the night he was conceived in, the returns of it: LET DARKNESS SEIZE UPON IT; let it not only he deprived of the light of the moon and stars, but let an horrible darkness seize upon it, that it may be an uncommon and a terrible one: LET IT NOT BE JOINED UNTO THE DAYS OF THE YEAR; the solar year, and make one of them; or, "let it not be one among them" c, let it come into no account, and when it is sought for, let it not appear, but be found wanting; "or let it not joy" or "rejoice among the days of the year" d, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and others interpret it, or be a joyful one, or anything joyful done or enjoyed in it: LET IT NOT COME INTO THE NUMBER OF THE MONTHS; meaning not the intercalated months, as Sephorno, nor the feasts of the new moon, as others, but let it not serve to make...

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

DARKNESS. intense or thick darkness. Hebrew. _'ophel._ Not _hashak_ (verses: Job 3:4; Job 3:5; Job 3:9) which is less intense....

Would God I had never been conceived or born This is the idea really expressed 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 the night in four. Let darkness seize that day; let not God from above seek after it; let thick darkness and the shadow of death claim it as part of their heritage; let clouds and all that maketh black the day, eclipses, ominous obscurations, affright it, Job 3:4. Let darkness swallow up that night that it be not reckoned nor come in among the joyful troop of nights in their glittering procession; while other nights ring with birth-day gladness let it sit barren; let enchanters curse it; let it be endless, waiting always for a dawn that never breaks,...