Bible Strands
Job 3:16
Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses his own ruined existence in a solitary lament following the sudden loss of his family, wealth, and health. He voices his despair directly to himself amid the silence of his devastated life.
The words — נֶפֶל (nefel) literally translates to "miscarriage" or "stillborn," while טָמוּן (tamun) means "hidden." These terms anchor the speaker’s wish to have been concealed from existence before drawing breath.
The thread — The image of a stillborn missing the sun appears in Psalm 58:8, while the theme of prolonged life without satisfaction runs in Ecclesiastes 6:3. Paul later adapts the concept of untimely birth to describe his own apostolic commissioning in 1 Corinthians 15:8.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to face unvarnished existential anguish without softening the language. It demands that despair be acknowledged as a legitimate human response before any theological resolution can be considered.
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
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
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.
- 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.
- 1 Corinthians 15:8 And last of all He appeared to me also, as to one of untimely birth.