Bible Strands
Job 10:19
If only I had never come to be, but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses God directly while trapped in a cycle of lament, speaking immediately after questioning his birth and before requesting a brief pause from divine observation.
The words — The Hebrew אֶהְיֶ֑ה ('eh.Yeh) from H1961 literally means "I was" or "I existed," combined with לֹא־ (lo'-) "not" to form a wish for nonexistence.
The thread — This desire to bypass life entirely parallels Psalms 58:8, which compares the fate of the wicked to a dissolving slug or a stillborn child that never sees the sun.
Why it lands — The text states a direct wish for nonexistence before any theological explanation is offered. It asks the reader to sit with unmediated despair and recognize that profound suffering can manifest as a demand to never have lived rather than a search for answers.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
Cross-references
- Psalms 58:8 Like a slug that dissolves in its slime, like a woman’s stillborn child, may they never see the sun.