Why were there knees to receive me, and breasts that I should be nursed?
Parallel translations
- WEB Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse?
- KJV Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
- NKJV Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
- NASB “Why were the knees there in front of me, And why the breasts, that I would nurse?
- NLT Why was I laid on my mother’s lap? Why did she nurse me at her breasts?
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 wonders why he was received and nursed as a newborn. He wishes he had not been kept alive.
Overview
Job questions the very care that preserved him at birth, the knees that received him and the breast that fed him. His grief recoils from the ordinary mercies that sustained his infancy. The verse shows how deep suffering can make even life itself feel like an unwanted gift.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Isa 66:12For this is what the LORD says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flowing stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm, and bounced upon her knees.
- Gen 30:3Then she said, “Here is my maidservant Bilhah. Sleep with her, that she may bear children for me, so that through her I too can build a family.”
- Gen 50:23He saw Ephraim’s sons to the third generation, and indeed the sons of Machir son of Manasseh were brought up on Joseph’s knees.
- Ezek 16:4–5On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.
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 3:12 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.