Ibn Ezra, the last phrase of the verse is like a statement made by those onboard a ship about to flounder. They might curse the day that they boarded the ship since they are now destined to be eaten by Leviathan (which he understands simply as a large fish).
3:8 May its morning stars be dark. May it hope for light and not find it. May it not see the rays of the morning light.
The images continue to be bleak. Perhaps the verse refers to a day in which dawn does not yield much light even as it might be anticipated.
3:9 Because it did not lock the gates of my [mother’s] womb nor conceal trouble from my eyes.
Job continues to decry the day of his birth. His deep-seated cry of agony frames an entire experience of life as “Why was I born to suffer?”
Rashi adds insight to our understanding of this verse by suggesting that the antecedent of “it” refers to the one who has power to do so—either God or the angel appointed to watch over childbirth. Had that Being/being done so, Job would never have known the suffering he would endure; it would have been “concealed from [his] eyes.”
3:10 Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not croak as I came out of the womb?
This verse continues Job’s lament. It suggests that Job was prepared to die immediately upon birth, as soon as he came out of the womb in order to avoid what he eventually experienced.
3:11 Why were there knees to receive me? Why were there breasts that I might suckle?
Job continues his dirge with a more graphic description of his birth. The knees are, of course, the knees of his mother, which both catch the child at birth and later provide a place of support and comfort. Rashi tells us that Job complained because it was determined that he was to be born into a life of pain and suffering but that his mother would nurse him.
3:12 For now I would be lying still. I would be asleep and at rest
3:13 together with the sovereign rulers and the counselors of the earth who built those places now in ruins
Because of Job’s pain, he cannot be consoled. He yearns only for the sleep of death; it is only there where he will find any respite for his pain. In this poetic frame, Job acknowledges that death is the way of the world, even for those who are as powerful as kings. They end in ruin, as do the areas over which they rule—even the buildings that they erected to celebrate their greatness. But in this interesting turn of events, Job seems to hope that just as these rulers have made a mark on the world, perhaps his death will do the same.
3:14 or with nobles who had gold and who filled their houses with silver.
This is clearly a continuation of the preceding verse. The Targum wants to make sure that we realize that such “houses” as the author designates are really their storehouses or their treasure houses.
3:15 Or would that I would have been like a still birth hidden away or like babies who had never seen the light?
It seems like the author, as confirmed by the Targum’s translation of the verse, is suggesting that the baby was hidden away in the womb and thereby died as a fetus in utero. The light to which the author refers is probably the simple “light of day.” Such a sentiment is insufficient for the Targum and argues that such light is “the light of Torah.”
3:16 The wicked cease their agitation there and the weary can rest.
Everything ends in the grave. Trouble and troublers are no more. Pain and suffering cease.
The Targum provides some hope to those who are wicked. If they repent, the pain of Gehinnom will be taken from them. Death promises reward to the righteous. Those students who have become “weary” in mastering their Torah studies will find rest.
Rashi explains how “the wicked cease.” They are prevented from doing beneath the earth what they wouldn’t stop doing above the earth. Ibn Ezra suggests that “the wicked cease” moving about in the grave and so cease provoking the people with whom in life they came into contact. Gersonides offers a straightforward insight from life. After the death of “the wicked,” no one has to be afraid of them.
3:17 Prisoners can relax together; they do not have to pay attention to the taskmaster’s voice.
In the grave, even prisoners driven to toil are now at ease. They could not relax for a moment while they were still alive. They were unable to relate to one another. Every moment included pain. They had to listen to their jailors. Only death brought them to oblivion.
3:18 There are great and small. And the slave is free from one’s master.
While there are social distinctions in life, there are no such distinctions in death. All are equal in the grave. As in previous verses, the Targum changes the tone of the verse by referring to the Patriarchs: in the grave is Jacob (called a young lad) and Abraham (called the old man) and Isaac (called Servant of Adonai) who went free from the captivity of his master.
For Rashi, the verse means that the distinctions that are made in life remain in death. The “great” are still great and the “small” are all small.
3:19 Why does God give light to those who must toil and life to those who are ever embittered
While it is not clear who is the subject of the verse, it is quite probable that the author intends Job to make reference to God. This is the position that Rashi takes. Thus, we have translated it gender neutral. The author has Job ask, “Why did God not kill them when they were born?” Verses 19–21 are one complete statement or rhetorical question.
3:20 who long for death, but it does not come; who search for it more than for a hidden treasure,
For some, life has become such a burden that death is preferable. For Rashi, those “who long for death” are those “bitter of soul” (from the previous verse). They yearn to die and complain when they don’t. More than any amount of wealth, they search for death.
3:21 who are exceedingly happy, and indeed rejoice when they find the grave?
It is a sad state of affairs when the ultimate expression of happiness is only found with death. But this is Job’s theme throughout this section of the book. For him, death seems to be the only antidote for life. But it is really life—and living it to its fullest—that can be the only response to death.
3:22 To a person whose way is hidden and whom God has hedged in,
This verse is connected to 3:23. Obviously, the way that is hidden is hidden to the person seeking his or her path in the world. To make clear the meaning, the Targum adds some words in its translation of the verse: all that is bitter [to the person . . .]. Rashi has a different sense of what is hidden. He suggests that all the good that a person has done is hidden from God. But the “hedging in” is related to the verb used in Hosea 2:8 (vayaasech), which is more like “putting a screen in front of that person to lock the person in.” For Ibn Ezra, it is indeed God who has locked the person in. Attributing his explanation to Saadya Gaon (late ninth-, early tenth-century philosopher/rabbi who was head of the academy in Sura), Ibn Ezra argues that the “way is hidden” means that a person receives no pleasure from anything, not even from eating. Gersonides is even more direct and claims that God has fenced off the way this person would go so that the person can attain none of his [or her] desires.
3:23 my sighing comes before my food. My screams gush out like water.
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