¶“Why did I not die at birth, Come out of the womb and pass away?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
- KJV Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
- 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?
- 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 46:3“Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried from the womb.
- 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.
- Ps 71:6I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb. I will always praise you.
- Ps 22:9–10But you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust while at my mother’s breasts.
- Hos 9:14Give them — Yahweh what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
- 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.
- Ps 139:13–16For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
- Ps 58:8Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen 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.