Job 3:11

Second long strophe JOB WISHES THAT HE WERE DEAD, Job 3:11-19.

a. The four following questions form a climax: he follows the course of his life from its commencement in embryo ( מרחם ) to the birth, and from the joy of his father, who took the new-born child upon his knees, to the fuller development of the infant, and he curses this growing life in four phases. ARNHEIM and SCHOTTMANN, Job 3:11-13.

11. Why died I not Since for some inexplicable cause it was necessary that I should live, why did I not die before, or immediately when, I was born? Even the gay and frivolous life of the Greek, with all its glamour, could not hide the current of misery that pulsated through and through the nation’s heart. And yet little would we expect from the Greek such a maxim of despair as this of Theognis, (425:) “The best of all things is, not to be born and see the rays of the bright sun, but when born, to die as soon as possible, and lie buried under a load of earth”