Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Is death final?The Hebrew Bible's wisdom literature and older narrative strata treat death as terminal — the dead go to Sheol, lose consciousness, and do not return.
Job 14:1(v20)“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.
Psalms 39:13(v20)Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.”
Jeremiah 20:14-18(v18)Cursed is the day in which I was born. Don’t let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed. Cursed is the man who brought news to my…
Job 3:10-11(v18)because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes. “Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t…
Job 7:6-7(v20)My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope. Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.
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Job 7:16-21(v20)I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath. What is man, that you should magnify him,…
Job 8:9(v20)(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)
Job 9:25-26(v20)“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good. They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that…
Job 11:20(v18)But the eyes of the wicked will fail. They will have no way to flee. Their hope will be the giving up of the spirit.”
Job 13:21(v20)withdraw your hand far from me, and don’t let your terror make me afraid.
Job 14:10(v18)But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
Psalms 39:5(v20)Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.”
Psalms 58:8(v19)Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.
Psalms 103:15-16(v20)As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place…
Jeremiah 15:10(v18)Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have…
Matthew 26:24(v18)The Son of Man goes, even as it is written of him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (17 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn v20He wisheth that God would leave off his affliction,…
He wisheth that God would leave off his affliction, considering his great misery and the brevity of his life.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv18–20Job 10:18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth…
Job 10:18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
Ver. 18. Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb?] Why? but was not that a mercy? David esteemed it so, and gives God the glory, Psa 22:9. But discontent is an utter enemy to thankfulness. The bird sings not till she have taken up her stand to her mind. Some men’s eyes are so bleared and glazed with tears for what they want, that they cannot see what good they have, cannot see mercies for blessings. Job here, in a distemper, wisheth himself (as he had done before, Job 3:1-26. "Who can understand his errors?" Psa 19:12) either unborn, or presently dead, without the distance of one day between his birth and his burial. In quo errorem erravit non levem, vir alioqui pientissimus; this was a worse wish than if he had desired that his life might be presently taken away from him, for herein he showeth himseff unthankful to God for all his former benefits; and not so only, but angry with God for the good he had done him: thus we have seen dogs in a chase fly at their masters, and children in a pelt strike at their parents. But these were the voices of the flesh lusting against the spirit, which afterwards (being justly reprehended for them, first by Elihu, and then also by God himself) he repressed and repented of in dust and ashes, Job 42:6.
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Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!] sc. With delight: for what pleasure is there in seeing a dead corpse, especially a stillborn child? See Gen 23:4, with the note. This text teacheth us, saith an interpreter, what sad effects extreme grief and pain worketh in the very best: it distempereth their spirits, and so disturbeth them, that their complaints look like the blasphemies of the wicked, and they sometimes wish absurd things, dishonourable to God, and prejudicial to themselves.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv18–20To wit, alive, i.e. that I had never been…
To wit, alive, i.e. that I had never been born alive.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv18–20I should have been as though I had not…
I should have been as though I had not been,.... For though it cannot be said absolutely of such an one, an abortive or untimely birth, that it is a nonentity, or never existed; yet comparatively it is as if it never had a being; it being seen by none or very few, it having had no name, nor any conversation among men; but at once buried, and buried in forgetfulness, as if no such one had ever been; see Ecc 6:3. This Job wished for, for so some render it, "oh, that I had been as though I had never been" (f); and then he would have never been involved in such troubles he was, he would have been free from all his afflictions and distresses, and never have had any experience of the sorrows that now surrounded him:
I should have been carried from the womb to the grave; if he had not been brought out of it, the womb had been his grave, as in Jer 20:17; or if he had died in it, and had been stillborn, he would quickly have been carried to his grave; he would have seen and known nothing of life and of the world, and the things in it; and particularly of the troubles that attend mortals here: his passage in it and through it would have been very short, or none at all, no longer than from the womb to the grave; and so should never have known what sorrow was, or such afflictions he now endured; such an one being in his esteem happier than he; see Ecc 4:3.
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(f) So Vatablus, Piscator, and some in Mercerus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn v20Cease - My life is short, and of itself…
Cease - My life is short, and of itself hastens to an end, there is no need that thou shouldest grudge me some ease for so small a moment.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv18–20Verse 18. Wherefore then] Why didst thou give me…
Verse 18. Wherefore then] Why didst thou give me a being, when thou didst foresee I should be exposed to such incredible hardships? See on Job 3:10, &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v20Job 10:20-22. Are not my days few? Cease then,…
Job 10:20-22. Are not my days few? Cease then, &c. — My life is short, and of itself hastens to an end; there is no need that thou shouldest grudge me some ease for so small a moment. Let me alone — Or lay aside, or remove thy hand or anger from me. That I may take comfort a little — Hebrews אבליגה, abligah, et recreabo me, I shall refresh, or strengthen myself: shall have some respite, some remission of my grief and pain, some consolation. Those that are not duly thankful for constant ease should think how welcome one hour’s ease would be if they were in constant pain. Before I go to the place whence I shall not return — Shall not come back into this world and life. At death we must bid a final farewell to this world: the body must then be laid where it will lie long; and the soul appointed to that state where it must be for ever. That had need to be well done which is to be done but once, and done for eternity. Even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death — That is, a dark and dismal shade. Holy souls at death remove to a land of light, where there is no death; but their bodies they leave to a land of darkness, and the shadow of death. Of darkness, as darkness itself, &c. — He heaps up expressions here to show that he has as dreadful apprehensions of death and the grave as other men naturally have, so that it was only the extreme misery he was in that made him wish for it. Without any order — No order is observed in bringing people to the grave, not the eldest are brought first, not the richest, not the poorest, and yet every one in his own order, the order appointed by the God of life. All lie there on the same level, and there is no distinction between the prince and the peasant; but the servant is there free from his master: and in the grave there is perpetual night, and no succession of day. And where the light is as darkness — Where there is no difference between light and darkness; where the day is as dark as the night; where there is nothing but perpetual and uninterrupted darkness. In the grave there is no knowledge, no comfort, no joy, no praising God, no working out our salvation, for the night is come wherein no man can work. Let us consider this, and therefore walk and work while we have the light with us.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv18–20Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth - See…
Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth - See the notes at Job 3:11.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn v20Lament. Hebrew, "take comfort," (Haydock) or breath. (Calmet) ---…
Lament. Hebrew, "take comfort," (Haydock) or breath. (Calmet) --- Repentance is always necessary, but more particularly at the hour of death. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn v20But, since I was destined from my birth to…
But, since I was destined from my birth to these ills, at least give me a little breathing time during the few days left me (Job 9:34; Job 13:21; Psa 39:13).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv18–20b. Lost in the perplexities of existence, the sole…
b. Lost in the perplexities of existence, the sole favour he has to ask is a little respite (for reflection) before he descends to the land of deepest darkness, Job_10:18-22.
18. O that I had given up the ghost — Rather, I should have died. “If the flesh should murmur and cry out, as Christ even cried out and was feeble,” (says Luther, in one of his consolatory letters,) “the spirit nevertheless is ready and willing, and, with sighings that cannot be uttered, will cry, Abba, Father, is it thou? thy rod is hard, but thou still art Father; I know that of a truth.” — Delitzsch. In sad contrast with this, and in harmony with Job, is the language of Artabanus, the Persian: “Short as our time is, there is no man, whether it be here among this multitude or elsewhere, who is so happy as not to have felt the wish — I will not say once, but full many a time — that he were dead, rather than alive.” — Herodotus, 7:46.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv18, 2018, 19. Perplexed even to despair by this idea…
18, 19. Perplexed even to despair by this idea of the purpose of God Job asks, Why God ever gave him existence at all? and as in ch. Job_3:11 seq. wishes he had never seen life.
hast thou brought] didst thou bring.
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Oh that I had given] I should have given.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv18, 20(18) Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth?—Here Job…
(18) Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth?—Here Job reverts to the strain of his original curse (Job_3:11, &c.).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv18–20Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of…
Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? A recurrence to his original complaint; (Job_3:3-10) as if, after full consideration, he returned to the conviction that the root of the whole matter the real thing of which he might justly complain was that he had ever been born into the world alive! Oh that I had given up the ghost! Before birth, or in the act of birth. (so Job_3:11) And no eye had seen me! "No eye," i.e. , "had looked upon my living face." For then
Vers. 18-22. Job to God: the progress of the third controversy:. An old complaint renewed.
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I A GREAT MERCY DESPISED. Life. "Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb?" (ver. 18). Job here announces an important truth, that the extraction of an infant from the womb is practically God"s work, (Psa_22:9 Psa_71:6) but likewise commits a sin in regarding as an evil fortune what, rightly pondered, should have been esteemed a valuable blessing. Life, as God bestows it, is a precious gift; though frequently, as man makes it, it proves a dreadful curse. Job"s ingratitude was all the more reprehensible that in his case life had been crowned with mercies with great material wealth, with true domestic enjoyment, with immense social influence, with rich spiritual grace, with palpable Divine favour.
II A SINFUL REGRET INDULGED. That he had not been carried from the womb to the grave. "Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!" (ver. 18). Job"s regret was:
1. Sinful; inasmuch as it undervalued a Divine gift.
2. Unnatural; since it contradicted the instinct of love of life which the Creator has implanted in all his creatures.
3. Foolish; for though Job might have thereby escaped bodily pain, he would also have missed much happiness and many opportunities of glorifying God by doing good and enduring affliction.
4. Mistaken; as though Job had been carried from the womb to the grave, his expectation," I should have been as though I had not been," would not have proved correct. The child who opens its eyes on earth simply to shut them again does not return to the wide womb of nothingness when its tiny form is deposited in the dust. The fact of its being horn into Adam"s race constitutes it an immortal. The doctrine of annihilation, if not absolutely unphilosophical, is certainly unnatural and unscriptural.
III A PASSIONATE ENTREATY OFFERED. For a brief respite in the midst of his sufferings. "Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little.
1. The prayer. "Let me alone." Job craved a momentary alleviation in his troubles. Few sufferers are without such interludes of ease. God mercifully mitigates human sorrow by granting brief periods of relief; otherwise men would be crushed, and the end of affliction defeated.
2. The purpose. "That I may be cheerful a little." Job could not brighten up while tormented by incessant pain and haunted by continual fear. (Job_9:27) Only the lifting of God"s hand would remove the load from his heart and the cloud from his brow. And this he felt was desirable before he went to the under world. Most men will sympathize with Job in desiring a brief period of freedom from pain before passing into the eternal world, to enable them to calm their spirits, to collect their thoughts, to prepare their souls for the last conflict and the great hereafter.
3. The plea. "Are not my days few?" Job thought himself upon the brink of the grave. In this, however, he was mistaken. Most men deem themselves further from the unseen world than they really are, (1Sa_20:3) but occasionally sufferers judge themselves nearer the close of life than they eventually prove to be. If the first is a sin of presumption, the second is an error caused by feeble faith. If the first is peculiar to youth and health, the second is not infrequent to suffering and age.
IV A DISMAL FUTURE DEPICTED. Hades. The melancholy region, into which Job anticipated almost instantaneous departure, was not the grave, which was, properly speaking, only the receptacle of the dead body; but Sheol, the abode of departed spirits. As conceived by Job and other Old Testament saints, this was not a place where the disembodied spirit either found annihilation or sank into unconsciousness, but a realm in which the spirit, existing apart from the body, retained its self-consciousness. Yet the gloom which overhung this silent and impenetrable land was such as to render it unattractive in the extreme. It was a land of:
1. Perpetual exile. Before I go whence I shall not return" (ver. 21); "the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns" ("Hamlet," act 3. sc. 1).
2. Thick darkness. "A land of darkness, as darkness itself" (ver. 22). Four different terms are employed to depict the gloom of this dismal world; the first (used in Gen_1:2) probably depicting a condition of things upon which light has not yet arisen; the second representing this lightless region as death"s shade, i.e. the veil which death draws around the eyes of men; the third setting forth this darkness as that which covers up or encircles all things; and the fourth pointing to the complete shooting off of light, the deepest and thickest gloom. This horrible picture the poet finishes by adding, "and the light is as the thick darkness," meaning that in that doleful region the daylight or the noontide is like the midnight gloom of earth: "not light, but darkness visible" (Milton, "Paradise Lost," bk. 1.).
3. Complete disorder. A land "without any order" (ver. 22); meaning either without form or outline, every object being so wrapt in gloom that it appears devoid of shape, or without regular succession, as of day and night; a realm without light, without beauty, without form, without order; a dark subterranean chaos filled with pale ghosts, waiting in comparative inactivity during that "night in which no man can work," for the dawning of the resurrection morn. Contrast with all this the Christian Paradise, where the spirits of just men made perfect are now for ever with the Lord; not a laud of exile from which one shall no more return, but a better country, even a heavenly, from which one shall go no more out; (Rev_3:12) not a region of darkness, but a bright realm of light; (Rev_21:23) not a chaos of confusion, but a glorious cosmos of life, order, and beauty. (Rev_21:1)
Learn:
1. The danger of unsanctified affliction.
2. The power of Satan over the human heart.
3. The short-sightedness of sense and reason.
4. The propriety of ever being ready for our departure into the unseen world.
5. The value of the gospel, which has brought life and immortality to light.
6. The advantage possessed by those who live under the gospel dispensation.
7. The greater responsibility of those who enjoy greater light than Job did.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v18Oh that I had given up the ghost!
Job_10:18-22
Oh that I had given up the ghost!
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The effects of Jobs sufferings
The patriarch had already in the previous verses expressed to the Almighty that his sufferings were--
(1) Too great to render any efforts at self-consolation effective,
(2) Too deserved to justify any hope of relief,
(3) Too overwhelming to check the expression of his complaint, and now as
(4) Too crushing to give to existence anything but an intolerable curse, His sufferings, judging from his language here, had destroyed within him for a time three of the primary instincts of the soul.
I. A sense of duty. Sense of obligation to the Supreme is an instinct as universal as man, as deep as life itself; but the patriarch, in wishing that he had never been, or that his first breath had been extinguished, had lost all feeling in relation to the wonderful mercies which his Creator had conferred upon him during the past years of his existence.
What were those mercies?
1. Great material wealth.
2. Great domestic enjoyment.
3. Immense social influence.
II. A love of life. Seldom do we find, even amongst the most miserable of men, one who struggles not to perpetuate his existence. But this instinct Job now seems to have lost, if not its existence, its power. Existence has become so intolerable that he wishes he had never had it, and yearns for annihilation. Two thoughts are here suggested.
1. There may be something worse for man than annihilation.
2. This annihilation is beyond the reach of creatures.
III. Hope of a hereafter. Hope for future good is another of the strongest instincts of our nature. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mothers breasts. Indeed it is one of those powers within us that, like a mainspring, keeps every wheel in action. Man never is but always to be blest. Job seems to have lost this now. Hence his description of the future. Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness. He saw a future, but what was it?
1. Darkness. A starless, moonless midnight, a vast immeasurable abyss--the land of darkness. His hereafter was black, not a ray of light streamed from the firmament.
2. Confusion. Without any order. Small and great, young and old, all together in black chaos.
Conclusion--
1. That great suffering in this world in the case of individuals does not mean great sin.
2. The power of the devil over man.
3. The value of the Gospel. This man had no clear revelation of a blessed future. Hence one scarcely wonders at his frequent and impassioned complaints. How different our life to his! (Homilist.)
A good mans distempers
This passage teaches--
1. Saints highest fits of passion will not last, but mercy will reclaim them, and give them a cool of that fever.
2. As the fevers and distempers of saints may come to a very great height, so, ordinarily, that height or excess of them proves the step next to their cool.
3. Humble, sober prayer is a notable evidence and mean in calming distempered spirits; it is as the shower to allay that poisonous wind.
4. As mans life is but uncertain and short, so the thoughts of this should make men employ their time well, and to be very needy and pressing after God, and proofs of Him.
5. Such as are excited with much trouble, and have their exercises blessed to them, will be sober, and esteem much of little ease, to get leave to breathe, or to comfort and refresh themselves a little, with a sight of God, or of His grace in them, and not their own passions which they ought to abhor.
6. The least ease, breathing, or comfort, under trouble, cannot be had but of Gods indulgence.
7. It is the duty of men to acquaint themselves with death beforehand; and especially in times of trouble they should study it in its true colours.
8. Death and the grave in themselves, and when Christs victory over them is not studied, and men are hurried away to them in a tempest of trouble, are very terrible, and an ugly sight, as bringing an irreparable loss as to any restitution in this life.
9. The consideration of the ugliness of death and the grave, doth call upon all to provide somewhat before they lie down in that cold bed, wherein they will continue so long, and somewhat that may light them through that dark passage. (George Hutcheson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv18, 20brought me out of the womb
brought me out of the womb
Here being brought out of the womb represents being born into this world. AT: "brought me out of my mother's womb" or "brought me into this world" (See: Metaphor)
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given up my spirit
Giving up one's spirit represents dying. AT: "died" (See: Metaphor)
and that no eye had ever seen me
Job uses "eye" here to refer to the whole person. He wishes he could have died at birth, before anyone saw him. AT: "before any person had ever seen me" or "before I was born" (See: Synecdoche)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v2010:20-22 Earlier, Job had painted a fairly pleasant picture…
10:20-22 Earlier, Job had painted a fairly pleasant picture of Sheol (3:13-19); now he describes it as a land of darkness and utter gloom (see also 7:9-10; 14:7-22).
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v20 He wisheth that God would leave off his affliction,…
He wisheth that God would leave off his affliction, considering his great misery and the brevity of his life.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv18–20 Job 10:18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth…
Job 10:18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
Ver. 18. Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb?] Why? but was not that a mercy? David esteemed it so, and gives God the glory, Psa 22:9. But discontent is an utter enemy to thankfulness. The bird sings not till she have taken up her stand to her mind. Some men’s eyes are so bleared and glazed with tears for what they want, that they cannot see what good they have, cannot see mercies for blessings. Job here, in a distemper, wisheth himself (as he had done before, Job 3:1-26. "Who can understand his errors?" Psa 19:12) either unborn, or presently dead, without the distance of one day between his birth and his burial. In quo errorem erravit non levem, vir alioqui pientissimus; this was a worse wish than if he had desired that his life might be presently taken away from him, for herein he showeth himseff unthankful to God for all his former benefits; and not so only, but angry with God for the good he had done him: thus we have seen dogs in a chase fly at their masters, and children in a pelt strike at their parents. But these were the voices of the flesh lusting against the spirit, which afterwards (being justly reprehended for them, first by Elihu, and then also by God himself) he repressed and repented of in dust and ashes, Job 42:6.
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Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!] sc. With delight: for what pleasure is there in seeing a dead corpse, especially a stillborn child? See Gen 23:4, with the note. This text teacheth us, saith an interpreter, what sad effects extreme grief and pain worketh in the very best: it distempereth their spirits, and so disturbeth them, that their complaints look like the blasphemies of the wicked, and they sometimes wish absurd things, dishonourable to God, and prejudicial to themselves.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv18–20 To wit, alive, i.e. that I had never been…
To wit, alive, i.e. that I had never been born alive.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv18–20 I should have been as though I had not…
I should have been as though I had not been,.... For though it cannot be said absolutely of such an one, an abortive or untimely birth, that it is a nonentity, or never existed; yet comparatively it is as if it never had a being; it being seen by none or very few, it having had no name, nor any conversation among men; but at once buried, and buried in forgetfulness, as if no such one had ever been; see Ecc 6:3. This Job wished for, for so some render it, "oh, that I had been as though I had never been" (f); and then he would have never been involved in such troubles he was, he would have been free from all his afflictions and distresses, and never have had any experience of the sorrows that now surrounded him:
I should have been carried from the womb to the grave; if he had not been brought out of it, the womb had been his grave, as in Jer 20:17; or if he had died in it, and had been stillborn, he would quickly have been carried to his grave; he would have seen and known nothing of life and of the world, and the things in it; and particularly of the troubles that attend mortals here: his passage in it and through it would have been very short, or none at all, no longer than from the womb to the grave; and so should never have known what sorrow was, or such afflictions he now endured; such an one being in his esteem happier than he; see Ecc 4:3.
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(f) So Vatablus, Piscator, and some in Mercerus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v20 Cease - My life is short, and of itself…
Cease - My life is short, and of itself hastens to an end, there is no need that thou shouldest grudge me some ease for so small a moment.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv18–20 Verse 18. Wherefore then] Why didst thou give me…
Verse 18. Wherefore then] Why didst thou give me a being, when thou didst foresee I should be exposed to such incredible hardships? See on Job 3:10, &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v20 Job 10:20-22. Are not my days few? Cease then,…
Job 10:20-22. Are not my days few? Cease then, &c. — My life is short, and of itself hastens to an end; there is no need that thou shouldest grudge me some ease for so small a moment. Let me alone — Or lay aside, or remove thy hand or anger from me. That I may take comfort a little — Hebrews אבליגה, abligah, et recreabo me, I shall refresh, or strengthen myself: shall have some respite, some remission of my grief and pain, some consolation. Those that are not duly thankful for constant ease should think how welcome one hour’s ease would be if they were in constant pain. Before I go to the place whence I shall not return — Shall not come back into this world and life. At death we must bid a final farewell to this world: the body must then be laid where it will lie long; and the soul appointed to that state where it must be for ever. That had need to be well done which is to be done but once, and done for eternity. Even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death — That is, a dark and dismal shade. Holy souls at death remove to a land of light, where there is no death; but their bodies they leave to a land of darkness, and the shadow of death. Of darkness, as darkness itself, &c. — He heaps up expressions here to show that he has as dreadful apprehensions of death and the grave as other men naturally have, so that it was only the extreme misery he was in that made him wish for it. Without any order — No order is observed in bringing people to the grave, not the eldest are brought first, not the richest, not the poorest, and yet every one in his own order, the order appointed by the God of life. All lie there on the same level, and there is no distinction between the prince and the peasant; but the servant is there free from his master: and in the grave there is perpetual night, and no succession of day. And where the light is as darkness — Where there is no difference between light and darkness; where the day is as dark as the night; where there is nothing but perpetual and uninterrupted darkness. In the grave there is no knowledge, no comfort, no joy, no praising God, no working out our salvation, for the night is come wherein no man can work. Let us consider this, and therefore walk and work while we have the light with us.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv18–20 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth - See…
Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth - See the notes at Job 3:11.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v20 Lament. Hebrew, "take comfort," (Haydock) or breath. (Calmet) ---…
Lament. Hebrew, "take comfort," (Haydock) or breath. (Calmet) --- Repentance is always necessary, but more particularly at the hour of death. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v20 But, since I was destined from my birth to…
But, since I was destined from my birth to these ills, at least give me a little breathing time during the few days left me (Job 9:34; Job 13:21; Psa 39:13).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv18–20 b. Lost in the perplexities of existence, the sole…
b. Lost in the perplexities of existence, the sole favour he has to ask is a little respite (for reflection) before he descends to the land of deepest darkness, Job_10:18-22.
18. O that I had given up the ghost — Rather, I should have died. “If the flesh should murmur and cry out, as Christ even cried out and was feeble,” (says Luther, in one of his consolatory letters,) “the spirit nevertheless is ready and willing, and, with sighings that cannot be uttered, will cry, Abba, Father, is it thou? thy rod is hard, but thou still art Father; I know that of a truth.” — Delitzsch. In sad contrast with this, and in harmony with Job, is the language of Artabanus, the Persian: “Short as our time is, there is no man, whether it be here among this multitude or elsewhere, who is so happy as not to have felt the wish — I will not say once, but full many a time — that he were dead, rather than alive.” — Herodotus, 7:46.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv18, 20 18, 19. Perplexed even to despair by this idea…
18, 19. Perplexed even to despair by this idea of the purpose of God Job asks, Why God ever gave him existence at all? and as in ch. Job_3:11 seq. wishes he had never seen life.
hast thou brought] didst thou bring.
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Oh that I had given] I should have given.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv18, 20 (18) Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth?—Here Job…
(18) Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth?—Here Job reverts to the strain of his original curse (Job_3:11, &c.).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv18–20 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of…
Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? A recurrence to his original complaint; (Job_3:3-10) as if, after full consideration, he returned to the conviction that the root of the whole matter the real thing of which he might justly complain was that he had ever been born into the world alive! Oh that I had given up the ghost! Before birth, or in the act of birth. (so Job_3:11) And no eye had seen me! "No eye," i.e. , "had looked upon my living face." For then
Vers. 18-22. Job to God: the progress of the third controversy:. An old complaint renewed.
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I A GREAT MERCY DESPISED. Life. "Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb?" (ver. 18). Job here announces an important truth, that the extraction of an infant from the womb is practically God"s work, (Psa_22:9 Psa_71:6) but likewise commits a sin in regarding as an evil fortune what, rightly pondered, should have been esteemed a valuable blessing. Life, as God bestows it, is a precious gift; though frequently, as man makes it, it proves a dreadful curse. Job"s ingratitude was all the more reprehensible that in his case life had been crowned with mercies with great material wealth, with true domestic enjoyment, with immense social influence, with rich spiritual grace, with palpable Divine favour.
II A SINFUL REGRET INDULGED. That he had not been carried from the womb to the grave. "Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!" (ver. 18). Job"s regret was:
1. Sinful; inasmuch as it undervalued a Divine gift.
2. Unnatural; since it contradicted the instinct of love of life which the Creator has implanted in all his creatures.
3. Foolish; for though Job might have thereby escaped bodily pain, he would also have missed much happiness and many opportunities of glorifying God by doing good and enduring affliction.
4. Mistaken; as though Job had been carried from the womb to the grave, his expectation," I should have been as though I had not been," would not have proved correct. The child who opens its eyes on earth simply to shut them again does not return to the wide womb of nothingness when its tiny form is deposited in the dust. The fact of its being horn into Adam"s race constitutes it an immortal. The doctrine of annihilation, if not absolutely unphilosophical, is certainly unnatural and unscriptural.
III A PASSIONATE ENTREATY OFFERED. For a brief respite in the midst of his sufferings. "Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little.
1. The prayer. "Let me alone." Job craved a momentary alleviation in his troubles. Few sufferers are without such interludes of ease. God mercifully mitigates human sorrow by granting brief periods of relief; otherwise men would be crushed, and the end of affliction defeated.
2. The purpose. "That I may be cheerful a little." Job could not brighten up while tormented by incessant pain and haunted by continual fear. (Job_9:27) Only the lifting of God"s hand would remove the load from his heart and the cloud from his brow. And this he felt was desirable before he went to the under world. Most men will sympathize with Job in desiring a brief period of freedom from pain before passing into the eternal world, to enable them to calm their spirits, to collect their thoughts, to prepare their souls for the last conflict and the great hereafter.
3. The plea. "Are not my days few?" Job thought himself upon the brink of the grave. In this, however, he was mistaken. Most men deem themselves further from the unseen world than they really are, (1Sa_20:3) but occasionally sufferers judge themselves nearer the close of life than they eventually prove to be. If the first is a sin of presumption, the second is an error caused by feeble faith. If the first is peculiar to youth and health, the second is not infrequent to suffering and age.
IV A DISMAL FUTURE DEPICTED. Hades. The melancholy region, into which Job anticipated almost instantaneous departure, was not the grave, which was, properly speaking, only the receptacle of the dead body; but Sheol, the abode of departed spirits. As conceived by Job and other Old Testament saints, this was not a place where the disembodied spirit either found annihilation or sank into unconsciousness, but a realm in which the spirit, existing apart from the body, retained its self-consciousness. Yet the gloom which overhung this silent and impenetrable land was such as to render it unattractive in the extreme. It was a land of:
1. Perpetual exile. Before I go whence I shall not return" (ver. 21); "the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns" ("Hamlet," act 3. sc. 1).
2. Thick darkness. "A land of darkness, as darkness itself" (ver. 22). Four different terms are employed to depict the gloom of this dismal world; the first (used in Gen_1:2) probably depicting a condition of things upon which light has not yet arisen; the second representing this lightless region as death"s shade, i.e. the veil which death draws around the eyes of men; the third setting forth this darkness as that which covers up or encircles all things; and the fourth pointing to the complete shooting off of light, the deepest and thickest gloom. This horrible picture the poet finishes by adding, "and the light is as the thick darkness," meaning that in that doleful region the daylight or the noontide is like the midnight gloom of earth: "not light, but darkness visible" (Milton, "Paradise Lost," bk. 1.).
3. Complete disorder. A land "without any order" (ver. 22); meaning either without form or outline, every object being so wrapt in gloom that it appears devoid of shape, or without regular succession, as of day and night; a realm without light, without beauty, without form, without order; a dark subterranean chaos filled with pale ghosts, waiting in comparative inactivity during that "night in which no man can work," for the dawning of the resurrection morn. Contrast with all this the Christian Paradise, where the spirits of just men made perfect are now for ever with the Lord; not a laud of exile from which one shall no more return, but a better country, even a heavenly, from which one shall go no more out; (Rev_3:12) not a region of darkness, but a bright realm of light; (Rev_21:23) not a chaos of confusion, but a glorious cosmos of life, order, and beauty. (Rev_21:1)
Learn:
1. The danger of unsanctified affliction.
2. The power of Satan over the human heart.
3. The short-sightedness of sense and reason.
4. The propriety of ever being ready for our departure into the unseen world.
5. The value of the gospel, which has brought life and immortality to light.
6. The advantage possessed by those who live under the gospel dispensation.
7. The greater responsibility of those who enjoy greater light than Job did.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v18 Oh that I had given up the ghost!
Job_10:18-22
Oh that I had given up the ghost!
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The effects of Jobs sufferings
The patriarch had already in the previous verses expressed to the Almighty that his sufferings were--
(1) Too great to render any efforts at self-consolation effective,
(2) Too deserved to justify any hope of relief,
(3) Too overwhelming to check the expression of his complaint, and now as
(4) Too crushing to give to existence anything but an intolerable curse, His sufferings, judging from his language here, had destroyed within him for a time three of the primary instincts of the soul.
I. A sense of duty. Sense of obligation to the Supreme is an instinct as universal as man, as deep as life itself; but the patriarch, in wishing that he had never been, or that his first breath had been extinguished, had lost all feeling in relation to the wonderful mercies which his Creator had conferred upon him during the past years of his existence.
What were those mercies?
1. Great material wealth.
2. Great domestic enjoyment.
3. Immense social influence.
II. A love of life. Seldom do we find, even amongst the most miserable of men, one who struggles not to perpetuate his existence. But this instinct Job now seems to have lost, if not its existence, its power. Existence has become so intolerable that he wishes he had never had it, and yearns for annihilation. Two thoughts are here suggested.
1. There may be something worse for man than annihilation.
2. This annihilation is beyond the reach of creatures.
III. Hope of a hereafter. Hope for future good is another of the strongest instincts of our nature. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mothers breasts. Indeed it is one of those powers within us that, like a mainspring, keeps every wheel in action. Man never is but always to be blest. Job seems to have lost this now. Hence his description of the future. Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness. He saw a future, but what was it?
1. Darkness. A starless, moonless midnight, a vast immeasurable abyss--the land of darkness. His hereafter was black, not a ray of light streamed from the firmament.
2. Confusion. Without any order. Small and great, young and old, all together in black chaos.
Conclusion--
1. That great suffering in this world in the case of individuals does not mean great sin.
2. The power of the devil over man.
3. The value of the Gospel. This man had no clear revelation of a blessed future. Hence one scarcely wonders at his frequent and impassioned complaints. How different our life to his! (Homilist.)
A good mans distempers
This passage teaches--
1. Saints highest fits of passion will not last, but mercy will reclaim them, and give them a cool of that fever.
2. As the fevers and distempers of saints may come to a very great height, so, ordinarily, that height or excess of them proves the step next to their cool.
3. Humble, sober prayer is a notable evidence and mean in calming distempered spirits; it is as the shower to allay that poisonous wind.
4. As mans life is but uncertain and short, so the thoughts of this should make men employ their time well, and to be very needy and pressing after God, and proofs of Him.
5. Such as are excited with much trouble, and have their exercises blessed to them, will be sober, and esteem much of little ease, to get leave to breathe, or to comfort and refresh themselves a little, with a sight of God, or of His grace in them, and not their own passions which they ought to abhor.
6. The least ease, breathing, or comfort, under trouble, cannot be had but of Gods indulgence.
7. It is the duty of men to acquaint themselves with death beforehand; and especially in times of trouble they should study it in its true colours.
8. Death and the grave in themselves, and when Christs victory over them is not studied, and men are hurried away to them in a tempest of trouble, are very terrible, and an ugly sight, as bringing an irreparable loss as to any restitution in this life.
9. The consideration of the ugliness of death and the grave, doth call upon all to provide somewhat before they lie down in that cold bed, wherein they will continue so long, and somewhat that may light them through that dark passage. (George Hutcheson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv18, 20 brought me out of the womb
brought me out of the womb
Here being brought out of the womb represents being born into this world. AT: "brought me out of my mother's womb" or "brought me into this world" (See: Metaphor)
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given up my spirit
Giving up one's spirit represents dying. AT: "died" (See: Metaphor)
and that no eye had ever seen me
Job uses "eye" here to refer to the whole person. He wishes he could have died at birth, before anyone saw him. AT: "before any person had ever seen me" or "before I was born" (See: Synecdoche)
I had never existed
"I had never lived"
I would have been carried
"My body would have been carried"
translationWords
womb
spirit
grave
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v20 10:20-22 Earlier, Job had painted a fairly pleasant picture…
10:20-22 Earlier, Job had painted a fairly pleasant picture of Sheol (3:13-19); now he describes it as a land of darkness and utter gloom (see also 7:9-10; 14:7-22).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.