Bible Strands
Job 3:10
For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job delivers this curse during his opening lament in chapter 3, speaking directly to the night of his birth and addressing no human audience. He voices his despair at the moment his life began, immediately after cursing the darkness of his conception.
The words — The text records the Hebrew verb סָגַר (Sa.gar), meaning "it shut," coupled with דַּלְתֵי (dal.Tei), literally "doors of." Job states that these doors did not close, leaving him exposed to עָמָל ('a.Mal), or "trouble."
The thread — Scripture uses the image of a closed womb in Genesis 20:18 as an act of divine restraint and in Jeremiah 20:17 as a desire for non-existence. Job references this motif to state that his birth was not prevented, and to infer that his continued existence guarantees ongoing sorrow.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to recognize that unchosen survival can function as a continuous exposure to pain. It asks the reader to confront the possibility that life itself may be the mechanism that withholds relief from suffering.
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
Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
Cross-references
- Genesis 20:18 for on account of Abraham’s wife Sarah, the LORD had completely closed all the wombs in Abimelech’s household.
- Ecclesiastes 6:3 A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
- Jeremiah 20:17 because he did not kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb forever enlarged.
- Genesis 29:31 When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.
- 1 Samuel 1:5 But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved her even though the LORD had closed her womb.
- Job 6:2 “If only my grief could be weighed and placed with my calamity on the scales.
- Job 10:1 “I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 23:2 “Even today my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
- Ecclesiastes 11:10 So banish sorrow from your heart, and cast off pain from your body, for youth and vigor are fleeting.
- Job 10:18 Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!