After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
After sudden fall from family, wealth, honor, influence and health into deepest misfortune and personal affliction, Job sat in utter silence for seven days and seven nights with the neighboring princes who had come to comfort him, sitting together under the spreading branches of a tree, until he broke the silence to speak in bitter anguish and cursed the day he was born. Read together with chapters 1 and 2, the verse stands in the opening part of the book and belongs to the setting forth of the great problems of overruling providence and sin and suffering, in which God disciplines Job by bringing him through the fire of affliction. It marks the turn from unshaken faith under his first trials to almost-despair, despair and rebellion after his trial, when he opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
That almost-despair was brought on by the perplexing, tantalizing, continued pain of his boils and the even worse talk of his friends, showing that bodily suffering can become so severe that a person curses the day of birth and longs for death. The outburst pours the bitter tide of his anguished heart into his friends' ears and begins the remarkable war of words, the poetic colloquies in which Job and his three friends argue about the cause and purpose of human suffering. In that debate the brilliant philosophy of the East is blended, illustrated and applied with profound religious wisdom, unfolding more fully the poem about God's dealing with His children and human misunderstanding of His purposes.
Even Job, a model of patience and a good man, was deeply disturbed by affliction, yet even in this grief cursing the day of his birth he held fast to his integrity, and his suffering became a refining trial from which he comes forth strengthened. His deep grief and anguish did not mean there was no hope, for God was able to help him and make his final days prosperous and happy. Since even his earlier faithfulness did not make him immune to falling into sin, and trouble can stir turmoil even in the best hearts, no one should presume on personal steadfastness but should guard the heart against resentment toward God and despair under His hand and seek divine help to remain safe.
After sudden fall from family, wealth, honor, influence and health into deepest misfortune and personal affliction, Job sat in utter silence for seven days and seven nights with the neighboring princes who had come to comfort him, sitting together under the spreading branches of a tree, until he broke the silence to speak in bitter anguish and cursed the day he was born. Read together with chapters 1 and 2, the verse stands in the opening part of the book and belongs to the setting forth of the great problems of overruling providence and sin and suffering, in which God disciplines Job by bringing him through the fire of affliction. It marks the turn from unshaken faith under his first trials to almost-despair, despair and rebellion after his trial, when he opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
That almost-despair was brought on by the perplexing, tantalizing, continued pain of his boils and the even worse talk of his friends, showing that bodily suffering can become so severe that a person curses the day of birth and longs for death. The outburst pours the bitter tide of his anguished heart into his friends' ears and begins the remarkable war of words, the poetic colloquies in which Job and his three friends argue about the cause and purpose of human suffering. In that debate the brilliant philosophy of the East is blended, illustrated and applied with profound religious wisdom, unfolding more fully the poem about God's dealing with His children and human misunderstanding of His purposes.
Even Job, a model of patience and a good man, was deeply disturbed by affliction, yet even in this grief cursing the day of his birth he held fast to his integrity, and his suffering became a refining trial from which he comes forth strengthened. His deep grief and anguish did not mean there was no hope, for God was able to help him and make his final days prosperous and happy. Since even his earlier faithfulness did not make him immune to falling into sin, and trouble can stir turmoil even in the best hearts, no one should presume on personal steadfastness but should guard the heart against resentment toward God and despair under His hand and seek divine help to remain safe.