Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
Parallel translations
- KJV Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
- BSB May it be cursed by those who curse the day—those prepared to rouse Leviathan.
- NKJV May those curse it who curse the day, Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan.
- NASB “May those curse it who curse the day, Who are prepared to disturb Leviathan.
- NLT Let those who are experts at cursing— whose cursing could rouse Leviathan— curse that day.
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 invokes those skilled in cursing days and rousing Leviathan. He summons every power to undo his birthday.
Overview
Job calls on professional cursers and the mythic chaos-monster Leviathan to blot out his day, using the poetic imagery of his culture for ultimate undoing. He is not endorsing pagan belief but heaping up forceful language for his anguish. Later God will show Job that He alone rules even Leviathan, putting such powers in their place.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Job 41:1“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook, or press down his tongue with a cord?
- Job 41:10None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?
- 2 Chr 35:25Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel. Behold, they are written in the lamentations.
- Jer 9:17–18Yahweh of Armies says, “Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come.
- Job 41:25When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. They retreat before his thrashing.
- Mark 5:38He came to the synagogue ruler’s house, and he saw an uproar, weeping, and great wailing.
- Matt 11:17and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you didn’t dance. We mourned for you, and you didn’t lament.’
- Amos 5:16Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide ways; and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
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 3:8 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.