Job 3:1-10 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Job 3:1-26: 3:1-26 Job’s outburst did not mean that his integrity had cracked under the strain (42:7-8 ; Jas 5:11 ). Elijah and Jeremiah, both godly men, used the same hyperbolic language (1 Kgs 19:4 ; Jer 20:14-18 ). Summary for Job 3:1-10: 3:1-10 Job spoke and thus put at risk his refusal to sin with his mouth (1:21 ; 2:10 ). • Job cursed the day of his birth in great detail. However, his words sound more like pitiful complaints. Job didn’t curse God as his creator, but he lamented the conditions of his existence.

Summary for Job 3:1-26: 3:1-26 ^a Job’s outburst did not mean that his integrity had cracked under the strain (42:7-8 ^b; Jas 5:11 ^c). Elijah and Jeremiah, both godly men, used the same hyperbolic language (1 Kgs 19:4 ^d; Jer 20:14-18 ^e).
Summary for Job 3:1-10: 3:1-10 ^f Job spoke and thus put at risk his refusal to sin with his mouth (1:21 ^g; 2:10 ^h).

• Job cursed the day of his birth in great detail. However, his words sound more like pitiful complaints. Job didn’t curse God as his creator, but he lamented the conditions of his existence.
3:5 ⁱ Job longed for the sinister darkness of the underworld (Exod 10:22 ^j; Prov 4:19 ^k; Joel 2:2 ^l) and the gloom of death (Job 10:21-22 ^m; 38:17 ⁿ) to claim the day of his birth.
3:8 ^o The expression experts at cursing refers to professional cursers such as Balaam (Num 22–24 ^p).
3:9 ^q Venus and Mercury, the morning stars, herald the dawn (38:7 ^r).
3:10 ^s shut my mother’s womb: Closing or opening the womb sometimes refers to conception (Gen 16:2 ^t; 20:18 ^u; 29:31 ^v; 30:22 ^w; 1 Sam 1:5-6 ^x), but here it refers to birth (see also Job 38:8 ^y).