Job 3:6

If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year; may it never be entered in any of the months.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Job speaks in his opening lament, cursing the day of his birth and wishing the conception night erased from the calendar.

The words — אֹפֶל ('O.fel) translates literally as "darkness," while יִ֭חַדְּ (Yi.chad) carries the sense "it rejoice" or "mark itself as a day."

The thread — The verse continues Job’s curse by demanding the night vanish from the annual cycle, echoing the darkness imagery in Job 3:5 and the barrenness requested in Job 3:7.

Why it lands — The text demands the reader confront a desire for absolute erasure of suffering, treating time itself as a mechanism that must be unmade.

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

הַלַּ֥יְלָהha./Lay.lahthe/ night הַהוּא֮ha./Hu'<the>/ that יִקָּחֵ֪ה֫וּyi.ka.Che./Hulet it take/ it אֹ֥פֶל'O.feldarkness אַל־'al-may not יִ֭חַדְּYi.chadit rejoice בִּימֵ֣יbi./Meiamong/ [the] days of שָׁנָ֑הsha.Nah[the] year בְּמִסְפַּ֥רbe./mis.Parin/ [the] number of יְ֝רָחִ֗יםye.ra.Chim[the] months אַל־'al-may not יָבֹֽא׃ya.Vo'it come

King James Version

As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.