Job 2:11-3:26
11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. 12 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. 13 And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
3.1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 And Job said:
3 “Let the day perish on which I was born,
and the night that said,
‘A man is conceived.’
4 Let that day be darkness!
May God above not seek it,
nor light shine upon it.
5 Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
Let clouds dwell upon it;
let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 That night—let thick darkness seize it!
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Behold, let that night be barren;
let no joyful cry enter it.
8 Let those curse it who curse the day,
who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
let it hope for light, but have none,
nor see the eyelids of the morning,
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor hide trouble from my eyes.
11 “Why did I not die at birth,
come out from the womb and expire?
12 Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth
who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child,
as infants who never see the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;
they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there,
and the slave is free from his master.
20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
and life to the bitter in soul,
21 who long for death, but it comes not,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22 who rejoice exceedingly
and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?
24 For my sighing comes instead ofmy bread,
and my groanings are poured out like water.
25 For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
and what I dread befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
Sermon quotes and References:
“If God turned on Job for no reason – if Job is now seeing a side to God he never suspected but was lurking there all along…then Job is not interested [even] in the charmed life he used to enjoy. … How terrible even the best and happiest of lives become without the friendship of God! Why, why did Job ever leave the womb, if it meant he would have to see the day when God’s hatred of him was finally revealed (3:9-10)? If Job had been stillborn (3:11), he could have found peace of a sort in Sheol, far away from that angry God (3:13).”
Eric Ortlund, Suffering Wisely & Well
O heart bereaved and lonely, whose brightest dreams have fled,
Whose hopes, like summer roses, are withered, crushed, and dead;
Though link by link be broken, and tears unseen may fall,
Look up amid thy sorrow to Him who knows it all.
O cling to thy Redeemer, thy Savior, Brother, Friend;
Believe and trust His promise to keep you till the end.
O watch and wait with patience, and question all you will;
His arms of love and mercy are round about thee still.
Look up, the clouds are breaking, the storm will soon be o’er;
And thou shall reach the haven where sorrows are no more.
Look up, be not discouraged; Trust on, whate’er befall;
Remember, O remember, thy Savior knows it all.
Fanny Crosby, He Knows It All