Job 3 1

Job 3:1 kjv

After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

Job 3:1 nkjv

After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

Job 3:1 niv

After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

Job 3:1 esv

After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

Job 3:1 nlt

At last Job spoke, and he cursed the day of his birth.

Job 3 verses

Job 3 1 Meaning

After seven days of profound and sympathetic silence with his friends, Job finally breaks his mournful quietude. In Job 3:1, he transitions from enduring suffering with righteous submission to voicing a deep, existential lament. He does not directly curse God, but rather expresses a wish that his day of birth had never occurred, or that his very existence could be undone. This pivotal verse marks a shift from the narrative prologue to the lengthy poetic dialogues, setting the stage for Job's struggle to reconcile his suffering with God's justice.

Job 3 1 Context

Job 3:1 follows a deeply significant seven-day and seven-night period of silent mourning (Job 2:13), during which Job's three friends – Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar – sat with him in stark silence. This communal silence underscored the incomprehensible magnitude of Job's suffering. The "opening of his mouth" signifies the end of this period, and a profound, solemn break from his earlier, steadfast acceptance of his fate (Job 1:21, 2:10). His utterance initiates the central, lengthy poetic dialogues of the book (chapters 3-41), where the fundamental questions of suffering, divine justice, and human wisdom are debated. Historically and culturally, profound lament and cursing one's day of birth were known forms of expressing extreme anguish in the ancient Near East, notably seen in Babylonian literature and the laments of the prophet Jeremiah. It reveals the permissible boundaries of honest complaint before God.

Job 3 1 Word analysis

• After this (אַחֲרֵי־כֵן, 'acharei-ken):

  • Word Level: A transitional temporal adverbial phrase. Indicates sequence, not necessarily causality, but signals a momentous shift in the narrative.
  • Significance: Marks the precise point at which the initial silent suffering ends and vocal expression of agony begins. It serves as a narrative pivot from Job's exemplary, quiet endurance to his impassioned and profound lament. It highlights the sustained period of internal agony before any words are spoken.

• Job (אִיּוֹב, 'Iyyov):

  • Word Level: The proper name of the protagonist. From a root perhaps meaning "hated" or "persecuted" (or "where is the Father," linking to lamentation).
  • Significance: Emphasizes the speaker's identity. This is the same Job, renowned for his integrity and piety, now driven to this state. His established righteousness lends weight to his lament, showing that even the most devout can reach such depths of despair without sinning.

• opened his mouth (פָּתַח פִּיהוּ, patach pihu):

  • Word Level: Hebrew idiom. Patach means "to open"; pihu is "his mouth."
  • Significance: Not merely a casual speaking, but a solemn, formal, or weighty utterance, often used for imparting wisdom (e.g., Ps 78:2, Prov 31:26) or pronouncing judgment/curses. Here, it denotes a significant pronouncement that breaks a long, agonizing silence, marking a profound outpouring of his soul. It signals a deliberated act, a boundary crossed, from passive endurance to active vocalization of inner torment.

• and cursed (וַיְקַלֵּל, vay'qallel):

  • Word Level: The Hebrew verb קלל (qalal) in the Piel stem (intensive). Literally means "to make light of," "to treat lightly," "to declare worthless." The Piel form strengthens the action, meaning "to curse intensely," "to execrate." The prefixed waw (ו) implies "and," making it sequential to the "opening of the mouth."
  • Significance: This is a potent declaration of condemnation, but crucially, it is directed at "his day" (his birth/existence), not directly at God. It is a powerful utterance intended to "unmake" or declare null and void something (his existence), stemming from extreme psychological and spiritual distress. It shows the depth of his despair, moving beyond a simple complaint to a profound denouncement of his own origin.

• his day (אֶת־יוֹמוֹ, 'et-yomo):

  • Word Level: יוֹם (yom) means "day"; -וֹ (-o) is the third-person masculine singular suffix "his"; אֶת ('et) is the direct object marker. It refers to the specific day of his birth, his entry into existence.
  • Significance: Job is not cursing God, nor is he merely cursing a bad present moment. He is cursing the very beginning of his life, his point of origin. This signifies a total rejection of his entire existence given the pain it has brought, wishing he had never been born or that that moment could be annulled. It's a common, intense form of ancient lament when experiencing insurmountable suffering, wishing to revert to non-existence as an escape from unanswerable pain.

Words-group Analysis:

• "Job opened his mouth": This phrase emphasizes the gravity and deliberation of his speech after prolonged silence, preparing the audience for a profound utterance. It signifies a significant turn from internal suffering to vocal expression.
• "cursed his day": This clarifies the object and nature of Job's lament. It is a wish for non-existence or an undoing of his origin, an act born of unbearable anguish, distinct from blasphemy against God. This intense lament is his human response to inexplicable suffering, not a renunciation of God.

Job 3 1 Bonus section

• The profound silence of Job's friends for seven days before this utterance reflects their recognition of the unfathomable depth of his suffering; a time for pure presence and mourning without platitudes. Job breaking this silence indicates the limit of human endurance under such extreme and incomprehensible duress.
• Job's curse is not blasphemy but a raw, human expression of intense existential pain, questioning the very gift of life when it is overshadowed by seemingly endless and meaningless suffering. This raw honesty is not condemned by God later in the book.
• The transition from prose narrative (chapters 1-2) to poetic dialogue (chapter 3 onwards) is heralded by this verse, marking a shift in the book's literary structure from action to intense verbal wrestling with profound theological questions.

Job 3 1 Commentary

Job 3:1 is a watershed moment in the book of Job. After enduring unimaginable calamities with remarkable integrity and a lack of complaint against God, Job finally breaks his seven-day silence. His "opening of his mouth" is a deliberate and solemn act, not a casual outburst. He curses "his day"—specifically his day of birth—a profound and agonizing wish that he had never been born. This lament, echoed by Jeremiah, reveals the raw honesty permissible in expressing extreme human suffering within biblical faith. Job's choice to curse his day rather than God Himself is crucial; it showcases his unbroken, albeit intensely challenged, integrity, despite the profound despair that leads him to reject his own existence as a preferable alternative to his current state of suffering. This act launches the extended poetic discourse where the nature of suffering and divine justice are thoroughly explored.