Bible Strands
Job 3:21
who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses the assembled mourners while cursing the day of his birth. He describes the psychological state of those who find continued existence unbearable.
The words — The Hebrew מְחַכִּים (mechakkim) means "those who long," paired with מוֹת (mot) for "death." The text states they actively pursue an absent death, treating it as a concealed prize rather than a guaranteed release.
The thread — This paradox of seeking an elusive death appears in Revelation 9:6, where people "will long to die, but death will escape them." The pursuit imagery parallels Proverbs 2:4, which describes searching for wisdom like hidden treasure.
Why it lands — The verse demands acknowledgment of despair so absolute that life is rejected as a burden. It requires the reader to confront the reality of hopelessness without supplying immediate resolution.
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
Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
Cross-references
- Revelation 9:6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them.
- Proverbs 2:4 if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,
- Numbers 11:15 If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”
- 1 Kings 19:4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
- Jonah 4:3 And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
- Jonah 4:8 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”