‘Whythen have You brought me out of the womb? Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me!
Parallel translations
- WEB “‘Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.
- KJV 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!
- BSB Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!
- NASB ¶‘Why then did You bring me out of the womb? If only I had died and no eye had seen me!
- NLT “‘Why, then, did you deliver me from my mother’s womb? Why didn’t you let me die at birth?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job asks why God brought him from the womb if only to suffer, wishing he had died unseen at birth. It is a raw cry of despair over his existence.
Overview
In anguish Job questions the purpose of his birth and wishes he had perished before any eye saw him. Such laments, like Jeremiah's and the psalmists', voice real human pain honestly before God (Jeremiah 20:18; Psalm 22:1). Scripture neither endorses despair nor silences it but draws sufferers to trust the God who gives and sustains life for purposes we cannot yet see.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Jer 20:14–18Cursed is the day in which I was born. Don’t let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.
- Jer 15:10Woe 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 men lent to me; yet everyone of them curses me.
- Matt 26:24The 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 man if he had not been born.”
- Job 3:10–11because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
- Job 11:20But the eyes of the wicked shall fail. They shall have no way to flee. Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit.”
- Job 14:10But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 10:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.