Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
Job cries out in deep anguish under affliction, asking why he was ever born and wishing he had died at birth unseen by any eye. He speaks as an upright man who knows his integrity yet cannot understand God's dealings, and in this he does not accuse God wrongly, showing that suffering is no proof of sin. God sees the end from the beginning and is working through that affliction what will glorify Himself, comfort thousands of sufferers, and prove a blessing to Job himself. His words picture death as a dark and fearful passage to the grave, a land without light or order from which there is no return, an enemy and a sorrow rather than a pleasant prospect. To be as though he had never been is to sleep unconsciously in the grave awaiting the resurrection, for giving up the ghost is breathing out the last breath with no conscious being continuing apart from the body, leaving only the particles of the body until he might lie still and be at rest.
Context and Lament
The verse belongs to the long colloquy in Job 3-31 over the cause and object of human suffering, in which Job speaks as a real, upright man who knows his own integrity yet cannot understand God's dealings with him. It expresses his anguish under deep affliction, asking why he was brought forth from the womb and wishing he had never been born or seen, that he had died unseen before any eye saw him. That complaint belongs to his answer that affliction is no proof of sin. In so speaking he does not charge God foolishly.
God sees the end from the beginning and is working through that affliction what will glorify Himself forever after, bring comfort and hope to thousands of suffering ones, and prove a blessing to Job himself. Together with verses 19-22 the verse portrays death as a dark, fearful passage to the grave, a land without light or order, from which Job expects no return. It thus presents death as an enemy and a source of sorrow, not as a pleasant prospect.
Death as Unconscious Rest
Together with the following verse, the cry to have died unseen describes death as being as though one had never been. That likeness shows the dead are unconscious and have no conscious existence apart from the body. Giving up the ghost is breathing out the last breath, not the release of a conscious being that lives on outside the body. When life is extinguished and the body returns to dust, nothing of the person remains except the particles of which the body was composed, which take other forms in nature.
The wish for death in infancy shows that death brings the adult into the same condition as the infant, and the dead are therefore not conscious or intelligent. The verse stands among the proofs that the dead are in the grave. There they sleep unconsciously. Death is unconscious nonexistence, with the dead awaiting the resurrection.
In deep affliction the wish to have never been born or seen is a wish to be hidden in the grave, to lie still and be at rest. It is not a desire to die in order to enter heaven. Death here is the grave, not a gate to endless life.
Job cries out in deep anguish under affliction, asking why he was ever born and wishing he had died at birth unseen by any eye. He speaks as an upright man who knows his integrity yet cannot understand God's dealings, and in this he does not accuse God wrongly, showing that suffering is no proof of sin. God sees the end from the beginning and is working through that affliction what will glorify Himself, comfort thousands of sufferers, and prove a blessing to Job himself. His words picture death as a dark and fearful passage to the grave, a land without light or order from which there is no return, an enemy and a sorrow rather than a pleasant prospect. To be as though he had never been is to sleep unconsciously in the grave awaiting the resurrection, for giving up the ghost is breathing out the last breath with no conscious being continuing apart from the body, leaving only the particles of the body until he might lie still and be at rest.
Context and Lament
The verse belongs to the long colloquy in Job 3-31 over the cause and object of human suffering, in which Job speaks as a real, upright man who knows his own integrity yet cannot understand God's dealings with him. It expresses his anguish under deep affliction, asking why he was brought forth from the womb and wishing he had never been born or seen, that he had died unseen before any eye saw him. That complaint belongs to his answer that affliction is no proof of sin. In so speaking he does not charge God foolishly.
God sees the end from the beginning and is working through that affliction what will glorify Himself forever after, bring comfort and hope to thousands of suffering ones, and prove a blessing to Job himself. Together with verses 19-22 the verse portrays death as a dark, fearful passage to the grave, a land without light or order, from which Job expects no return. It thus presents death as an enemy and a source of sorrow, not as a pleasant prospect.
Death as Unconscious Rest
Together with the following verse, the cry to have died unseen describes death as being as though one had never been. That likeness shows the dead are unconscious and have no conscious existence apart from the body. Giving up the ghost is breathing out the last breath, not the release of a conscious being that lives on outside the body. When life is extinguished and the body returns to dust, nothing of the person remains except the particles of which the body was composed, which take other forms in nature.
The wish for death in infancy shows that death brings the adult into the same condition as the infant, and the dead are therefore not conscious or intelligent. The verse stands among the proofs that the dead are in the grave. There they sleep unconsciously. Death is unconscious nonexistence, with the dead awaiting the resurrection.
In deep affliction the wish to have never been born or seen is a wish to be hidden in the grave, to lie still and be at rest. It is not a desire to die in order to enter heaven. Death here is the grave, not a gate to endless life.