Job 3:4

Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
day	הַיּ֥וֹם hai.Yom	H3117	a day (as the warm hours) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
darkness	חֹ֥שֶׁךְ Cho.shekh	H2822	the dark · noun, common masculine singular absolute
God	אֱל֣וֹהַּ 'e.Lo.ah	H433	a deity or the Deity · noun, common masculine singular absolute
regard	יִדְרְשֵׁ֣הוּ yid.re.She.hu	H1875	properly · verb, qal jussive, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
above	מִמָּ֑עַל mi.Ma.'al	H4605	properly · preposition + cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
light	נְהָרָֽה ne.ha.Rah	H5105	daylight · noun, common feminine singular absolute
shine	תּוֹפַ֖ע to.Fa'	H3313	to shine · verb, hiphil jussive, 3rd person feminine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Exodus 10:22-23 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:
Deuteronomy 11:12 A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end…
Joel 2:2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a s…
Amos 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
Acts 27:20 And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.
Revelation 16:10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 3:1-10

Long was Job's heart hot within him; and, while he was musing, the fire burned, and the more for being stifled and suppressed. At length he spoke with his tongue, but not such a good word as David spoke after a long pause: Lord, make me to know my end, Psa 39:3, Psa 39:4. Seven days the prophet Ezekiel sat down astonished with the captives, and then (probably on the sabbath day) the word of the Lord came to him, Eze 3:15, Eze 3:16. So long Job and his friends sat thinking, but said nothing; they were afraid of speaking what they thought, lest they should grieve him, and he durst not give vent to his thoughts, lest he should offend them. They came to comfort him, but, finding his afflictions…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 3:4

let not God regard it--rather, more poetically, "seek it out." "Let not God stoop from His bright throne to raise it up from its dark hiding-place." The curse on the day in Job 3:3, is amplified in Job 3:4-5; that on the night, in Job 3:6-10.

John Gill on Job 3:4

Let that day be darkness,.... Not only dark, but darkness itself, extremely dark; and which is to be understood not figuratively of the darkness of affliction and calamity; this Job would not wish for, either for himself, who had enough of that, or for others; but literally of gross natural darkness, that was horrible and dreadful, as some (x) render it: this was the reverse of what God said at the creation, "let there be light", Genesis 1:3, and there was, and he called it day; but Job wishes his day might be darkness, as the night; either that it had been always dark, and never become day, or in its return be remarkably dark and gloomy: let not God regard it, from above; that is, either G…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Job 3:3-5

3 Perish the day wherein I was born. And the night which said, A man-child is conceived! 4 Let that day become darkness; Let not Eloah ask after it from above, And let not the light shine on it. 5 May darkness and the shadow of death purchase it back; Let a cloud lie upon it; May that which obscures the day terrify it. The curse is against the day of his birth and the night of his conception as recurring yearly, not against the actual first day (Schlottm.), to which the imprecations which follow are not pertinent. Job wishes his birth-day may become dies ater, swallowed up by darkness as into nothing. The elliptical relative clauses, Job 3:3 (Ges. 123, 3; cf. 127, 4, c), become clear from th…

The Church Fathers

Learn here the reason which led the Emmanuel to a new birth in the flesh. Certainly the sin of the world was the reason for the advent of Christ.
— Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON JOB 3:4

Let this night be darkness, so that Job no longer has to suffer what he has suffered. "Let this night be darkness," that is to say, delivered to oblivion. May the Lord not look for it from above. Let it not be reproduced in immortality, that is to say, it will perish with all that is mortal. Let not light enlighten him; The light of remembrance.
— Augustine of Hippo, ANNOTATIONS ON THE BOOK OF JOB (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

According to Job's words, he desires that the moon or the stars might not illuminate his night but that it may be obscured by thick darkness, which Job calls the shadow of death. If one carefully examines the text's meaning, Job demands through his prayers that sin may appear as it actually is in its great depravity, so that sin may not simulate virtue. Rather, after sin has been recognized as dark and deadly, it may be avoided and rejected.
— Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON JOB 3:4-5

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Poetry — Has been well defined as “the measured language of emotion.” Hebrew poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man’s relation to God. “Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon,…
Darkness · Illustrative of: Anything hateful — Illustrative of: Anything hateful
Despondency · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Law · 28:4,5; — 28:4,5;
Murmuring · Exemplified: Job — Exemplified: Job

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Job 3:4

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 3:1-10

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 3:4

John Gill on Job 3:4

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 3:3-5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Job 3:4

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 3:1-10

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 3:4

John Gill on Job 3:4

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 3:3-5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Job 3:1-26

Rashi on Job 3:4