Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 3:4

Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

4. regard it ] lit. seek after it, or care for it. Let it perish from His mind that He cause no sun to rise upon it.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Let that day be darkness – Let it not be day; or, O, that it had not been day, that the sun had not risen, and that it had been night.

Let not God regard it from above – The word rendered here regard darash means properly to seek or inquire after, to ask for or demand. Dr. Good renders it here, Let not God inclose it, but this meaning is not found in the Hebrew. Noyes renders it literally, Let not God seek it. Herder, Let not God inquire after it. The sense may be, either that Job wished the day sunk beneath the horizon, or in the deep waters by which he conceived the earth to be surrounded, and prays that God would not seek it and bring it from its dark abode; or he desired that God would never inquire after it, that it might pass from his remembrance and be forgotten. What we value, we would wish God to remember and bless; what we dislike, we would wish him to forget. This seems to be the idea here. Job hated that day, and he wished all other beings to forget it. He wished it blotted out, so that even God would never inquire after it, but regard it as if it had never been.

Neither let the light shine upon it – Let it be utter darkness; let not a ray ever reveal it. It will be seen here that Job first curses the day. The amplification of the curse with which he commenced in the first part of Job 3:3, continues through Job 3:4-5; and then he returns to the night, which also (in the latter part of Job 3:3) he wished to be cursed. His desires in regard to that unhappy night, he expresses in Job 3:6-10.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 4. Let that day be darkness] The meaning is exactly the same with our expression, “Let it be blotted out of the calendar.” However distinguished it may have been, as the birthday of a man once celebrated for his possessions, liberality, and piety, let it no longer be thus noted; as he who was thus celebrated is now the sport of adversity, the most impoverished, most afflicted, and most wretched of human beings.

Let not God regard it from above] al yidreshehu, “Let Him not require it” – let Him not consider it essential to the completion of the days of the year; and therefore he adds, neither let the light shine upon it. If it must be a part of duration, let it not be distinguished by the light of the sun.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

I wish the sun had never risen upon that day to make it day, or, which is all one, that it had never been; and whensoever that day returns, I wish it may be black, and gloomy, and uncomfortable, and therefore execrable and odious to all men.

From above, i.e. from heaven; either,

1. By causing the light of the sun which is in heaven to shine upon it. So it agrees both with the foregoing and following branches of this verse. Or,

2. By blessing and favouring it, or by giving his blessings to men upon it. Let it be esteemed by all an unlucky and comfortless day. Or, Let not God require it, i. e. bring it again in its course, as other days return. In this sense God is said to require that which is past, Ecc 3:15. Compare Job 3:3,6.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

4. let not God regard itrather,more poetically, “seek it out.” “Let not God stoopfrom His bright throne to raise it up from its dark hiding-place.”The curse on the day in Job3:3, is amplified in Job 3:4;Job 3:5; that on the night,in Job 3:6-10.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Let that day be darkness,…. Not only dark, but darkness itself, extremely dark; and which is to be understood not figuratively of the darkness of affliction and calamity; this Job would not wish for, either for himself, who had enough of that, or for others; but literally of gross natural darkness, that was horrible and dreadful, as some x render it: this was the reverse of what God said at the creation, “let there be light”, Ge 1:3, and there was, and he called it day; but Job wishes his day might be darkness, as the night; either that it had been always dark, and never become day, or in its return be remarkably dark and gloomy:

let not God regard it, from above; that is, either God who is above, and on high, the High and Holy One, the Most High God, and who is higher than the highest, and so this is a descriptive character of him; or else this respects the place where he is, the highest heaven, where is his throne, and from whence he looks and takes notice of the sons of men, and of all things done below: and this wish must be understood consistent with his omniscience, who sees and knows all persons and things, even what are done in the dark, and in the darkest days; for the darkness and the light are alike to him; and as consistent with his providence, which is continually exercised about persons and things on earth without any intermission, even on every day in the year; and was it to cease one day, hour, or moment, all would be dissolved, and be thrown into the utmost confusion and disorder: but Job means the smiles of his providence, which he wishes might be restrained on this day; that he would not cause his sun in the heavens to shine out upon it, nor send down gentle and refreshing showers of rain on it; in which sense he is said to care for and regard the land of Canaan,

De 11:11; where the same word is used as here; or the sense is, let it be so expunged from the days of the year, the when it is sought for, and if even it should be by God himself, let it not be found; or let him not “seek” y after it, to do any good upon it:

neither let the light shine upon it; the light of the sun, or the morning light, as the Targum, much less the light at noonday; even not the diurnal light, as Schmidt interprets it, in any part of the day: light is God’s creature, and very delightful and desirable; the best things, and the most comfortable enjoyments, whether temporal, spiritual, or eternal, are expressed by it; and, on the other hand, a state of darkness is the most uncomfortable, and therefore the worst and most dismal things and states are signified by it.

x “horrens”, Caligo, Schultens. y “ne requirat”, Montanus, &c.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(4) Regard.Literally, require, ask for, and so manifest care about. (Comp. Deu. 11:12.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

4. Let regard it Literally, not seek it out, . That is, not concern himself about it; “so that it may remain without light, on the supposition that each single day owes its light to an especial care of God.” Dillmann.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments