Behold, may that night be barren; may no joyful voice come into it.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.
- KJV Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.
- NKJV Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it!
- NASB “Behold, may that night be barren; May no joyful shout enter it.
- NLT Let that night be childless. Let it have no joy.
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 longs for the night of his birth to be barren and joyless. He wishes it had produced no glad cry.
Overview
Job desires that the night yield no conception and no shout of joy, the opposite of the rejoicing that normally greets a birth. The imagery turns the celebration of life into emptiness. It captures how suffering can drain all gladness, even from one's own beginning.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Isa 13:20–22She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.
- Isa 24:8The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent.
- Jer 7:34I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”
- Rev 18:22–23And the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will never ring out in you again. Nor will any craftsmen of any trade be found in you again, nor the sound of a millstone be heard in you again.
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 3:7 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.