Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
- 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 41:1Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
- Job 41:10None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
- 2 Chr 35:25And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.
- Jer 9:17–18Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:
- Job 41:25When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.
- Mark 5:38And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly.
- Matt 11:17And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.
- Amos 5:16Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.