of the verse, we translated it as “the day of his birth,” following the suggestion of Ibn Ezra (and as implied in 3:2).
Gehinnom
The Jewish version of hell, Gehinnom, also called Sheol, literally refers to a valley south of Jerusalem on one of the borders between the territories of Judah and Benjamin. (Compare Joshua 15:8; 18:16.) During the time of the monarchy it was a site associated with a cult that burned children. Jeremiah condemned the practice. In the rabbinic period, the name is used to refer to the place of torment after death reserved for the wicked. It stands in contradistinction to Gan Eden, the “Garden of Eden,” which, in rabbinic literature, became known as the place of reward for the righteous. In the Bible, these two names never connote the abode of souls after death. Yet, in rabbinic literature, such references abound: in Pesachim 54a, Gehinnom and Gan Eden existed even before the world was created; Gehinnom is at the left hand of God and Gan Eden at God’s right in the midrash to Psalms 50:12.1
Providence
Sometimes referred to as “divine providence,” it is the notion that God can enter into people’s lives and history and exercise control. To better understand the notion, it might be called divine supervision of the individual. It includes the opportunity for God to intervene in nature “miraculously” as needed.
1. Kravitz and Olitzky, Pirke Avot, 91.
Chapter 3
3:1 Job then said,
This simple phrase is formulaic. When the Bible uses the phrase v’yaan . . . va’yamar (literally, “he answered . . . and said”) it means that a declaration is being made. (See Deuteronomy 21:7; 27:14 and Jeremiah 11:5.) Rashi’s understanding of the idiom, taking a lead from Deuteronomy 27:14, is that Job shouted loudly. Ibn Ezra takes his cue from the phrase as it is used in Deuteronomy 26:5. He thinks that the use suggests that a person so described is responding to a question. After three days of sitting in silence, Job’s three friends finally asked him how he was feeling. This verse, therefore, introduces his response.
3:2 Would that the day I was to be born had disappeared, the night when it was said, “a boy was conceived!”
Job is so disgusted with his life that he wished that he had never been born (the day) and never conceived (the night). We find a similar sentiment in Ecclesiaste 6:3 “. . . a still birth would be better off.”
3:3 Let that day be dark. Let God on high never search for it. And let no light shine on it.
This is a curse. Like other forms of proverbs, they are often presented in patterns. In this verse, the author heaps up notions that are introduced in the preceding verse. Darkness, which is the salient element of the curse, is presented in three ways in the verse, all reflecting the oblivion for which Job currently yearns.
3:4 May darkness and gloom pollute it. May a cloud take residence above it. May those who can make a day terrible make it that way [or even worse].
This verse is Job’s attempt to dig even deeper into the darkness of the curse as an expression of his state of mind. He is grasping at words and images that will express how he feels and his perspective on the world. It is dark and depressing and he is wallowing in the darkness. The sense is that the day should become ritually impure: may it be plunged in darkness even at daytime (the cloud). May the day terrify all within it. In many languages, darkness is linked to suffering and pain. Thus, the Yiddish curse a finstere fire af im (a dark fire should envelop him / Go to hell).
3:5 As for that night, may deep darkness take it. May it never be connected to any day of the year. May it never enter the cycle of months.
Job continues to express his anguish. He wants the day never to be repeated. It stands alone in its misery and no one else should have to suffer by it. He is asking that it be taken out of history so that it should not be given the dignity of acknowledging that it ever even existed.
3:6 May that night be desolate. May no joyous sound ever come into it.
Job continues the expression of his innermost feelings of despair. For Rashi, Job will be bereft of contact with human or animal. And for Gersonides, it indicates that the night is so dangerous that people wouldn’t even go out in groups since they are so concerned about personal safety.
3:7 May those who curse the day, [go ahead and] curse it. Indeed, even those who are ready to stir up Leviathan [may do so].
This verse seems to be an echo of a prebiblical pagan world replete with other deities. Nevertheless, the author has Job continuing to direct his imprecations at the moment of his conception and the moment of his birth with the help of gods so powerful that they have no fear of Leviathan, the so-called god of the sea.
For 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