Job 3:10 | NET2full | STEP | because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb on me, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes .

‏ Job 3:10

10 because it ^{▼▼tn The subject is still “that night.” Here, at the end of this first section, Job finally expresses the crime of that night—it did not hinder his birth.} did not shut the doors ^{▼▼sn This use of doors for the womb forms an implied comparison; the night should have hindered conception (see Gen 20:18 and 1 Sam 1:5).} of my mother’s womb on me, ^{▼▼tn The Hebrew has simply “my belly [= womb].” The suffix on the noun must be objective—it was the womb of Job’s mother in which he lay before his birth. See however N. C. Habel, “The Dative Suffix in Job 33:13,” Bib 63 (1982): 258-59, who thinks it is deliberately ambiguous.}
nor did it hide trouble ^{▼▼tn The word עָמָל (ʿamal) means “work, heavy labor, agonizing labor, struggle” with the idea of fatigue and pain.} from my eyes.

Job Wishes He Had Died at Birth ^{▼▼sn Job follows his initial cry with a series of rhetorical questions. His argument runs along these lines: since he was born (v. 10), the next chance he had of escaping this life of misery would have been to be still born (vv. 11-12, 16). In vv. 13-19 Job considers death as falling into a peaceful sleep in a place where there is no trouble. The high frequency of rhetorical questions in series is a characteristic of the book of Job that sets it off from all other portions of the OT. The effect is primarily dramatic, creating a tension that requires resolution. See W. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry, 340-41.}