Old Testament Commentary - Job 3
"Why Was I Ever Born?"

by Don R. Hender

~ A LAMINTATION OF LIFE GONE AWRY ~

Scriptural Text [& Editorial]	Commentary & Explanation	Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
CHAPTER 3 Job curses the day and services of his birth. He asks: Why died I not from the wormb?	Job verbally laments the day of his birth and calls upon it that it would be as though it never was. Missery and Suffering can cancel all the good experiences of a fulfilled life.	Life Is Not Easy Life Is Not Fair Things Are So Bad I Wish I Was Never Born
1 AFTER this opened Job his mouth, and ^acursed his day. 2 And Job spake, and said,		1^a TG Cursed
3 Let the day ^aperish wherein I was ^bborn^a, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. 4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. No Reason Without God Without God and something above, beyond and even before this mortal life, there is no reason or purpose to it all. It is only God, we being His children from whence we come and to Whom we may return that gives meaning and definition to our existence.	3^a Let the day perish wherein I was born There is a certain futility in the cycle of mortal life. From dust to dust, from dust were we created and unto dust doth our tabernale agains decay. So what is there about life? We are born crying and be all eventually die and have nothing pertaining unto this life to show for it, at least in terms of anything of worldly possession to show for our efforts. If there were only this mortal cycle then for sure the question would lume above us as to "Why?"—"Just what is the meaning and reason of it all?" Life Not Tied to God's Eternity Is But Job's Lament - Nothing.	3^a TG Despair ^b Jer. 20:14 (14-18) A Snippet of Eternity The true reality is that there is, was and always will be eternity. And unless we can tie ourselves to it in God, there is no meaning to life. And therefore Job's lament of 'Why Life' holds true. "Why even be born in the first place? To live and struggle and suffer and die—what is the point of it all. Why even be born out of darkness just to so return into that unknown darkness and waste again. What reason is there to the pain and suffering and the cycle of life that merely rounds itself out in missery and death?
5 Let darkness and the ^ashadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. 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.		5^a Ps. 23:4; Ps. 44:19 Ps. 107:14 (10, 14); D&C 57:10
7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein. 8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day: 10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
11 Why ^adied I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? 12 Why did the knees ^aprevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?		11^a Job 10:18 (18-19) 12^a HEB receive
13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, 14 With kings and counsellers of the earth, ^awhich built desolate places for themselves; 15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver: 16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.		14^a HEB who rebuilt ruins
17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at ^arest. 18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. 19 The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.		17^a TG Paradise
20 Wherefore is ^alight given to him that is in ^bmisery, and life unto the bitter in soul; 21 Which long for ^adeath, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures; 22 Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?		20^a D&C 88:67 ^b D&C 122:7 (1-7); TG Suffering 21^a Rev. 9:6
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in? 24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. 26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.