properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
solitary
גַלְמ֑וּדgal.Mud
H1565
sterile (as wrapped up too hard) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
voice
רְנָנָ֣הre.na.Nah
H7445
a shout (for joy) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
come
תָּבֹ֖אta.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal 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
Isaiah 13:20-22 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither…
Isaiah 24:8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
Jeremiah 7:34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the v…
Revelation 18:22-23 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoev…
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…
solitary--rather, "unfruitful." "Would that it had not given birth to me."
John Gill on Job 3:7
Lo, let that night be solitary,.... Let there be no company for journeys, or doing any business; no meetings of friends, neighbours, or relations on it, for refreshment, pleasure, and recreation, after the business of the day is over, as is frequently done; let there be no associations of this kind, or any other: in the night it was usual to have feasts on various accounts, and especially on account of marriage; but now let there be none, let there be as profound a silence as if all creatures, men and beasts, were dead, and removed from off the face of the earth, and nothing to be heard and seen on it: or, "let it be barren" or "desolate" (e), so R. Simeon bar Tzemach interprets it, and refe…
6 That night! let darkness seize upon it;
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
Let it not come into the number of the month.
7 Lo! let that night become barren;
Let no sound of gladness come to it.
8 Let those who curse the day curse it,
Who are skilled in stirring up leviathan.
9 Let the stars of its early twilight be darkened;
Let it long for light and there be none;
And let it not refresh itself with eyelids of the dawn.
Darkness is so to seize it, and so completely swallow it up, that it shall not be possible for it to pass into the light of day. It is not to become a day, to be reckoned as belonging to the days of the year and rejoice in the light thereof. יחדּ, for יחדּ, fut.…
The Church Fathers
But let it be pain; Because it brings pain to those who love it. That it counts no more in the days of months, for those righteous who, the righteous in the Church, who are like the moon, the lesser star; It is to them that these words are addressed: " For me, my brothers, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men (1 Cor. 3:1)." St. Paul would then be among the days of the year.
HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION. Lo, let that night be solitary, let it be worthy of no praise. That night is made solitary, in that it is divided by an eternal separation from the company of the land above. Yet this may be also taken in another sense, viz. that he loses man, whom he had made his fellow in ruin, and that the enemy perishes alone together with his body, while many that he had destroyed are restored by the Redeemer's grace. The night then is made solitary, when they that are Elect being raised up, our old enemy is made over alone to the eternal flames of hell. And it is well said, Let it be worthy of no praise. For when mankind, encompassed with the darkness of error, took stones for gods, in this, that they worshipped idols, what else did they but praise the deeds of their seducer? Hence Paul rightly remarks, We know that an idol is nothing. But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils. How else then is it with those that have bowed themselves to the worship of idols, but that they have 'praised the darkness of night?' But, lo! we see now that that night is known to be unworthy 'of any praise,' since now the worship of idols is condemned by the human race redeemed; and that 'night is left solitary,' in that there is none that goeth with the damned apostate spirit to suffer torments.
MORAL INTERPRETATION. Lo, let that night be solitary, and worthy of no praise. There are some men that not only never bewail what they do, but who do not cease to uphold and applaud it, and verily a sin that is upheld, is doubled. And against this it is rightly said by one, My son, hast thou sinned? add not again thereto. For he 'adds sin to sin,' who over and above maintains what he has done amiss; and he does not 'leave the night alone,' who adds the support of vindication also to the darkness of his fault. It is hence that the first man, when called in question concerning the 'night' of his error, would not have the same 'night' to be 'solitary,' in that while by that questioning he was called to repentance, he added the props of self-exculpation, saying, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat; i.e. covertly turning the fault of his transgression upon his Maker; as if he said, 'Thou gavest me occasion of transgressing, Who gavest me the woman.' It is hence that in the human race the branch of this sin is drawn out from that root so far as to this present time, that what is done amiss should be yet further maintained. Let him say then, Let that light be solitary, and not worthy of any praise. As though he besought in plain words, 'Let the fault that we have done remain alone, lest while it is praised and upheld, it bind us a hundredfold more in the sight of our Judge. We ought not indeed to have sinned, but would that, by not adding others, we would even leave those by themselves, which we have committed.' But here it is to be impressed upon our minds, that he in a true sense bears hard upon his sin, whose heart is no longer set to the love of the present state of being by any longing for prosperity, who sees how deceitful are the caresses of this world, and reckons its smiles as a kind of persecution.
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,…
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 longed for the sinister darkness of the underworld (Exod 10:22; Prov 4:19; Joel 2:2) and the gloom of death (Job 10:21-22; 38:17) to claim the day of his birth.