Because it did not shut the opening of my mother’s womb, Or hide trouble from my eyes.
Parallel translations
- WEB because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
- KJV Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
- BSB For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.
- NKJV Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.
- NLT Curse that day for failing to shut my mother’s womb, for letting me be born to see all this trouble.
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 blames that day for letting him be born into trouble. He sees his very birth as the gateway to his misery.
Overview
Job's reason for cursing the day is that it did not prevent his birth and so exposed him to the sorrow he now endures. His lament traces present suffering back to his origin. While honest, this perspective is limited, and the book will reveal a God whose purposes extend beyond what the sufferer can presently see.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Gen 20:18For Yahweh had closed up tight all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
- Jer 20:17because he didn’t kill me from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.
- Eccl 6:3–5If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:
- 1 Sam 1:5but to Hannah he gave a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but Yahweh had shut up her womb.
- Gen 29:31Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
- Eccl 11:10Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
- Job 6:2–3“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!
- Job 10:1“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 23:2“Even today my complaint is rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
- Job 10:18–19“‘Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.
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 3:10 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.