Job 10:19 kjv
I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
Job 10:19 nkjv
I would have been as though I had not been. I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.
Job 10:19 niv
If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!
Job 10:19 esv
and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave.
Job 10:19 nlt
It would be as though I had never existed,
going directly from the womb to the grave.
Job 10 19 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Jer 20:14 | Cursed be the day on which I was born! ... | Jeremiah’s despair and wish for never being born. |
| Jer 20:18 | Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow... | Jeremiah’s lament echoing Job's despair. |
| Eccl 4:2-3 | And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate... better than both is he who has not been... | Expresses preferability of non-existence over suffering. |
| 1 Kgs 19:4 | Elijah himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree and asked that he might die... | Prophet Elijah's wish for death in despair. |
| Num 11:15 | If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight... | Moses' plea to die due to overwhelming burden. |
| Jonah 4:3 | Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die... | Jonah's desire for death. |
| Ps 39:4-5 | "O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days... Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths..." | Reflects on the brevity and fragility of life. |
| Ps 90:5-6 | You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning... | Compares human life to fleeting things, emphasizing transience. |
| Ps 144:4 | Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow. | Man's life is brief and ephemeral. |
| Jas 4:14 | Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. | Life's brevity and uncertainty. |
| Ps 73:2-3 | But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. | Questioning God's justice in light of wicked prospering and righteous suffering. |
| Hab 1:2-3 | O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? ... Why do you make me look at iniquity...? | Prophet Habakkuk’s lament concerning injustice and God's apparent inaction. |
| Rom 8:22 | For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. | Creation’s universal suffering and groaning for redemption. |
| Deut 32:39 | “‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand." | God’s sovereign control over life and death. |
| 1 Sam 2:6 | The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. | Hannah's song acknowledging God's sovereignty over life. |
| Ps 139:13-16 | For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb... | God's intimate involvement in forming life in the womb. |
| Job 1:21 | "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there..." | Job’s earlier acceptance of loss, acknowledging origins and ends. |
| Rom 8:18 | For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. | Hope for future glory overriding present suffering. |
| Rev 21:4 | He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. | The ultimate removal of pain and suffering in the new creation. |
| 2 Cor 4:17 | For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. | Temporal suffering viewed in light of eternal glory. |
| Is 53:3 | He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief... | Christ as the suffering servant, a parallel to Job’s experience. |
| Heb 4:15 | For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. | Jesus's empathetic understanding of human suffering. |
Job 10 verses
Job 10 19 Meaning
Job 10:19 expresses Job’s profound despair, lamenting his very existence and wishing he had never been born or had died immediately at birth. His desire is for an instantaneous transition from the womb to the grave, thereby avoiding all the suffering, pain, and afflictions he is currently enduring. It is a raw cry for non-being as an escape from an insufferable present.
Job 10 19 Context
Job 10:19 is part of Job's extended lament and plea to God (Job 9-10). Having already stated his despair and the injustice of his suffering, Job escalates his direct address to God, moving from asserting God's omnipotence and his own inability to contend with Him (chapter 9) to a desperate appeal for understanding and a challenge to God's seeming persecution (chapter 10). He contrasts God’s intimate care in creating him (vv. 8-12) with God’s current relentless pursuit of him as an adversary (vv. 13-17). Amidst this profound questioning of divine justice, Job retreats into the most primal lament, wishing his very existence had been circumvented, demonstrating the depth of his physical, emotional, and spiritual agony. This verse directly follows his question in verse 18, "Why did you bring me out from the womb?" His suffering has become so intense that life itself, not merely death, is seen as the enemy. The broader historical and cultural context is the ancient Near Eastern wisdom tradition, which often linked prosperity to righteousness and suffering to sin. Job’s unexplainable suffering radically challenges this simplistic retributive worldview, pushing for a deeper understanding of God's ways.
Job 10 19 Word analysis
- I should have been (אֶהְיֶה – ’ehyēh - derived from the verb "to be"): Job's hypothetical desire or wish for an alternative past. This expresses a profound regret of existing. It’s a performative wish, a desperate "if only."
- as though (כְּלֹא – kᵉlōʾ): A particle conveying comparison and negation. It’s "as if," or "like." The addition of negation (לֹא) highlights a state of non-existence, emphasizing Job’s desire for unreality rather than just death.
- I had not been (הָיִיתִי – hāyîtî): A perfect form of the verb "to be." It emphasizes a completed state of non-existence. This is stronger than simply wishing for death; it is a wish that his entire being, his entire past, had never materialized. It's a wish for retroactive erasure from existence.
- I should have been carried (וַאֲלַךְ – waʾălaḵ – "and I would have gone"): Implies a passive or immediate transportation, without any active engagement or experience of life. It’s a rapid, direct movement from one point to another without the intermediate space of life.
- from the womb (מֵרֶחֶם – mērāḥem): The place of conception and birth (Hebrew: rechem). Symbolizes the absolute beginning of human life. The imagery evokes vulnerability and dependency.
- to the grave (אֶל-קֶבֶר – ʾel-qeber): The final resting place of the dead (Hebrew: qeber). Symbolizes the ultimate end of human existence.
Words-group by words-group analysis
- "I should have been as though I had not been": This phrase conveys a wish for metaphysical non-existence. It is more than just wanting to die; it is wishing for a total nullification of one's entire being and history. It's a desire for the cosmic record of his life to be blank, a profound statement of utter despair where even the memory of existence is painful. It stands in stark contrast to the human longing for significance and legacy.
- "I should have been carried from the womb to the grave": This vivid imagery expresses a desire for an extremely brief, virtually non-existent life, directly connecting the two extreme points of birth and death, bypassing all intermediate suffering and experience. It's a hyperbolic expression of avoiding all worldly struggles and pains by immediately transitioning from the moment of conception to eternal rest, without living any part of his given days. The passive voice ("carried") suggests an absence of personal agency in his existence and demise, highlighting his current lack of control over his unbearable circumstances.
Job 10 19 Bonus section
Job's wish for non-existence, as seen in this verse, is a primal human cry echoed across cultures and throughout history by those in extreme suffering. It implicitly challenges a teleological view of existence – that life always has a purpose, especially life given by God. Job's despair goes beyond mere wishing for an end to suffering; it extends to wishing for an undoing of his very being. This raw honesty within the book of Job grants permission for believers to voice their deepest, darkest thoughts and complaints to God, affirming that authentic faith can encompass profound doubt and lamentation without necessarily constituting a complete abandonment of God. It's a vital reminder of the complexity of the human spiritual journey in the face of suffering.
Job 10 19 Commentary
Job 10:19 encapsulates the depths of human despair when faced with unbearable, unexplainable suffering. It's not a rational theological statement but an agonizing lament from a broken man who perceives his very existence as a curse rather than a blessing. This verse powerfully portrays the sentiment that non-existence is preferable to enduring his current anguish. It confronts the typical ancient wisdom that life is inherently good, especially for the righteous, by suggesting that if life leads to such pain, its commencement itself is regrettable. This deeply personal outcry highlights the Joban theme of questioning God's actions while simultaneously remaining in a relationship, albeit a tormented one, with the Divine.