Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
- BSB Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?
- NKJV “Whydid I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?
- NASB ¶“Why did I not die at birth, Come out of the womb and pass away?
- NLT “Why wasn’t I born dead? Why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?
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 he did not die at birth. Since he was born, he wishes he had perished immediately.
Overview
Shifting from cursing his birthday to questioning his survival, Job longs to have died in the womb or at delivery. His repeated "why" expresses the bewilderment of undeserved suffering. These honest questions are not condemned; God welcomes the cries of the afflicted, even when no immediate answer is given.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Isa 46:3Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb:
- Job 10:18–19Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
- Ps 71:6By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.
- Ps 22:9–10But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.
- Hos 9:14Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
- Jer 15:10Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.
- Ps 139:13–16For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
- Ps 58:8As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 3:11 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.