Job 3 Geneva Bible (1599)
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (1)
- Original 16th-century spelling.
1 Afterward Iob opened his mouth, and cursed his day.
1 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.
2 And Iob cryed out, and sayd,
2 Job answered:
3 Let the day perish, wherein I was borne, and the night when it was sayde, There is a man childe conceiued.
3 “Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’
4 Let that day bee darkenesse, let not God regarde it from aboue, neyther let the light shine vpon it,
4 Let that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it.
5 But let darkenesse, and the shadowe of death staine it: let the cloude remayne vpon it, and let them make it fearefull as a bitter day.
5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes the day black terrify it.
6 Let darkenesse possesse that night, let it not be ioyned vnto the dayes of the yeere, nor let it come into the count of the moneths.
6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Yea, desolate be that night, and let no ioy be in it.
7 Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Let them that curse the day, (being readie to renue their mourning) curse it.
8 Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
9 Let the starres of that twilight be dimme through darkenesse of it: let it looke for light, but haue none: neither let it see the dawning of the day,
9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,
10 Because it shut not vp the dores of my mothers wombe: nor hid sorowe from mine eyes.
10 because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
11 Why died I not in the birth? or why dyed I not, when I came out of the wombe?
11 “Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
12 Why did the knees preuent me? and why did I sucke the breasts?
12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse?
13 For so shoulde I now haue lyen and bene quiet, I should haue slept then, and bene at rest,
13 For now I should have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,
14 With the Kings and counselers of the earth, which haue buylded themselues desolate places:
14 with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;
15 Or with the princes that had golde, and haue filled their houses with siluer.
15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;
16 Or why was I not hid, as an vntimely birth, either as infants, which haue not seene the light?
16 or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.
17 The wicked haue there ceased from their tyrannie, and there they that laboured valiantly, are at rest.
17 There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.
18 The prisoners rest together, and heare not the voyce of the oppressour.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19 There are small and great, and the seruant is free from his master.
19 The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.
20 Wherefore is the light giuen to him that is in miserie? and life vnto them that haue heauie hearts?
20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,
21 Which long for death, and if it come not, they would euen search it more then treasures:
21 who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22 Which ioy for gladnes, and reioyce, when they can finde the graue.
22 who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is the light giuen to the man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
24 For my sighing commeth before I eate, and my roarings are powred out like the water.
24 For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.
25 For the thing I feared, is come vpon me, and the thing that I was afraid of, is come vnto me.
25 For the thing which I fear comes on me, that which I am afraid of comes to me.
26 I had no peace, neither had I quietnesse, neither had I rest, yet trouble is come.
26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest; but trouble comes.”
Cross references (23)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Jeremiah 20:14–15; Psalm 106:33; Psalm 39:2–3; Job 2:9–10; Job 3:3
- 3 Jeremiah 20:14–18; Jeremiah 15:10; Job 10:18–19
- 4 Matthew 27:45; Amos 5:18; Revelation 16:10; Deuteronomy 11:12; Joel 2:2
- 5 Job 10:21–22; Job 28:3; Jeremiah 2:6; Psalm 23:4; Psalm 107:14
- 7 Isaiah 13:20–22; Jeremiah 7:34; Revelation 18:22–23; Isaiah 24:8
- 8 Job 41:1; Job 41:10; 2 Chronicles 35:25; Jeremiah 9:17–18; Job 41:25
- 9 Job 41:18; Jeremiah 8:15; Jeremiah 13:16; Job 30:26
- 10 Ecclesiastes 6:3–5; Genesis 20:18; Jeremiah 20:17; 1 Samuel 1:5; Genesis 29:31
- 11 Isaiah 46:3; Job 10:18–19; Hosea 9:14; Jeremiah 15:10; Psalm 139:13–16
- 12 Genesis 30:3; Isaiah 66:12; Genesis 50:23; Ezekiel 16:4–5
- 13 Ecclesiastes 9:10; Job 14:10–12; Job 21:13; Job 7:21; Ecclesiastes 6:3–5
- 14 Job 15:28; Psalm 89:48; Isaiah 14:10–16; Psalm 49:14; Psalm 49:6–10
- 15 1 Kings 10:27; Job 22:25; Zephaniah 1:18; Numbers 22:18; Job 27:16–17
- 16 Psalm 58:8; Ecclesiastes 6:3; 1 Corinthians 15:8
- 17 Revelation 14:13; Job 17:16; Isaiah 57:1–2; Job 14:13; Hebrews 4:11
- 18 Job 39:7; Exodus 5:15–19; Judges 4:3; Exodus 5:6–8; Isaiah 14:3–4
- 19 Ecclesiastes 8:8; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Job 30:23; Psalm 49:2; Luke 16:22–23
- 20 Jeremiah 20:18; Job 7:15–16; 1 Samuel 1:10; Proverbs 31:6; Job 6:9
- 21 Revelation 9:6; Proverbs 2:4; Numbers 11:15; Jonah 4:8; 1 Kings 19:4
- 23 Job 19:8; Lamentations 3:7; Isaiah 40:27; Job 12:14; Lamentations 3:9
- 24 Psalm 102:9; Psalm 42:3–4; Psalm 80:5; Psalm 38:8; Job 33:20
- 25 Job 1:5; Job 30:15; Job 31:23
- 26 Job 7:14; Job 27:9; Psalm 143:11
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
And this he declared, when he said, "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me; and that which I was afraid of is come unto me." And again, "But I wept for every helpless man, and groaned when I saw a man in distress." So because of this, nothing of what happened confounded him, none of those …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)