Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 3:16
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants [which] never saw light.
16. With strong revulsion from the anguish of life Job desires even if possible a deeper death than to have died when born, even the death of having been dead born, scarcely to be distinguished from non-existence itself. Comp. Ecc 4:2-3, with Plumptre’s notes and citations from the classics.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Or as an hidden untimely birth – As an abortion which is hid, or concealed; that is, which is soon removed from the sight. So the Psalmist, Psa 58:8 :
As a snail which melteth, let thom dissolve;
As the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
Septuagint ektroma, the same word which is used by Paul in 1Co 15:8, with reference to himself; see the notes at that place.
I had not been – I should have perished; I should not have been a man, as I now am, subject to calamity. The meaning is, that he would have been taken away and concealed, as such an untimely birth is, and that he would never have been numbered among the living and the suffering.
As infants which never saw light – Job expresses here no opinion of their future condition, or on the question whether such infants had immortal souls. He is simply saying that his lot would have been as theirs was, and that he would have been saved from the sorrows which he now experienced.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 16. Or as a hidden untimely birth] An early miscarriage, which was scarcely perceptible by the parent herself; and in this case he had not been – he had never had the distinguishable form of a human being, whether male or female.
As infants] Little ones; those farther advanced in maturity, but miscarried long before the time of birth.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Hidden; undiscerned and unregarded.
Untimely birth; born before the due time, and therefore extinct.
I had not been, to wit, in the land of the living, of which he here speaketh.
As infants which never saw light; being stifled and dead before they were born.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. untimely birth (Ps58:8); preferable to the life of the restless miser (Ec6:3-5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Or as an hidden untimely birth,…. Or “hid, as one born out of time”, as Mr. Broughton reads it; the Septuagint use the same word as the apostle does, when he says the like of himself, 1Co 15:8; the word has the signification of “falling” s, and designs an abortive, which is like to fruit that falls from the tree before it is ripe; and this may be said to be “hidden”, either in the belly, as the Targum, or however from the sight of man, it being not come to any proper shape, and much less perfection; now Job suggests, that if he had not lain with kings, counsellors, and princes, yet at least he should have been as an abortion, and that would have been as well to him: then
I had not been; or should have been nothing, not reckoned anything; should not have been numbered among beings, but accounted as a nonentity, and should have had no subsistence or standing in the world at all:
as infants [which] never saw light; and if not like an untimely birth, which is not come to any perfection, yet should have been like infants, which, though their mothers have gone their full time with them, and they have all their limbs in perfection and proportion, yet are dead, or stillborn, their eyes have never been opened to see any light; meaning not the light of the law, as the Targum, but the light of the sun, or the light of the world, see Ec 6:3; infants used to be buried in the wells or caves of the mummies t.
s “sicut abortivus qui ex utero excidit, aut in terram cadit”, Michaelis. t Vansleb, ut supra, (Relation of a Voyage to Egypt,) p. 90.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(16) Untimely birth.Another condition which would have relieved him from the experience of suffering.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Untimely birth A like figure appears in Psa 58:8. A similarity has been traced in other passages between Job and the Psalms. That such resemblance should exist does not necessarily determine which of the works was written before the other. The most it attests is, that the prior work (Job) was received as a sacred book by later writers.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 3:16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants [which] never saw light.
Ver. 16. Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been ] As an abortive or miscarrying embryo that falleth from the mother, as untimely fruit falleth off from the tree. See Rev 6:13 . Hidden it is called, because cast aside as an unsightly spectacle, that cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name is covered with darkness, Ecc 6:4 . Job could have wished some way or other never to have been, rather than to have been in so calamitous a condition; and herein he sinned, no doubt: for that which is of the flesh is flesh, Joh 3:6 .
As infants which never saw light
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
an hidden: Psa 58:8, 1Co 15:8
Reciprocal: Num 12:12 – of whom Job 3:20 – light Job 33:28 – see Ecc 6:3 – that an Jer 20:17 – he slew