3:1 After this opened a Job his mouth, and b cursed his day.
(a) The seven days ended, (Job 2:13).
(b) Here Job begins to feel his great imperfection in this
battle between the spirit and the flesh, (Ro 7:18)
and after a manner yields yet in the end he gets victory
though he was in the mean time greatly wounded.
3:3 Let the day c perish wherein I was born, and the night [in
which] it was said, There is a man child conceived.
(c) Men should not be weary of their life and curse it,
because of the infinities that it is subject to, but
because they are given to sin and rebellion against God.
3:4 Let that day be darkness; let not God d regard it from
above, neither let the light shine upon it.
(d) Let it be put out of the number of days, and let it not
have the sight of the sun to separate it from the night.
3:5 Let darkness and the e shadow of death stain it; let a
cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify
it.
(e) That is, most obscure darkness, which makes them afraid
of death that they are in it.
3:8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are f ready to
raise up their mourning.
(f) Who curse the day of their birth, let them lay that
curse on this night.
3:9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look
for light, but [have] none; neither let it g see the
dawning of the day:
(g) Let it be always night, and never see day.
3:11h Why died I not from the womb? [why] did I [not] give up
the ghost when I came out of the belly?
(h) This, and that which follows declares, that when man
gives place to his passions, he is not able to stay or
keep measure, but runs headlong into all evil unless
God calls him back.
3:13 For now should I have i lain still and been quiet, I
should have slept: then had I been at rest,
(i) The vehemency of his afflictions made him utter these
words as though death was the end of all miseries, and
as if there were no life after this, which he speaks
not as though it were so, but the infirmities of his
flesh caused him to break out in this error of the
wicked.
3:14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built k
desolate places for themselves;
(k) He notes the ambition of them who for their pleasure as
it were change the order of nature, and build in most
barren places, because they would by this make their
names immortal.
3:17 There the wicked l cease [from] troubling; and there the
weary be at rest.
(l) That is, by death the cruelty of the tyrants has
ceased.
3:18 [There] the m prisoners rest together; they hear not the
voice of the oppressor.
(m) All they who sustain any kind of calamity and misery in
this world: which he speaks after the judgment of the
flesh.
3:20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and n
life unto the bitter [in] soul;
(n) He shows that the benefits of God are not comfortable,
unless the heart is joyful, and the conscience quieted.
3:23 [Why is light given] to a man whose way is o hid, and
whom God hath hedged in?
(o) That sees not how to come out of his miseries, because
he does not depend on God's providence.
3:25 For the thing which I greatly p feared is come upon me,
and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
(p) In my prosperity I looked for a fall, as it now has come
to pass.
3:26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I
quiet; q yet trouble came.
(q) The fear of troubles that would ensue, caused my
prosperity to seem to me as nothing, and yet I am not
exempted from trouble.
