Job 3 · Verse 10

Job 3:10

Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
Job 3:10, King James Version

Job 3:10 in other translations

BSBFor that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.
WEBbecause it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
ASVBecause it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, Nor hid trouble from mine eyes.
YLTBecause it hath not shut the doors Of the womb that was mine! And hide misery from mine eyes.
DARBYBecause it shut not up the doors of the womb that bore me, and hid not trouble from mine eyes.
BBEBecause it did not keep the doors of my mother's body shut, so that trouble might be veiled from my eyes.
WebsterBecause it prevented not my birth, nor hid sorrow from my eyes.

What does Job 3:10 mean?

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 10 Because it shut not up the doors - Here is the reason why he curses the day and the night in which he was conceived and born; because, had he never been brought into existence, he would never have seen trouble. It seems, however, very harsh that he should have wished the destruction of his mother, in order that his birth might have been prevented; and I rather think Job's execration did not extend thus far. The Targum understands the passage as speaking of the umbilical cord, by which the fetus is nourished in its mother's womb: had this been shut up, there must have been a miscarriage, or he must have been dead born; and thus sorrow would have been hidden from his eyes. This seeming gloss is much nearer the letter and spirit of the Hebrew than is generally imagined. I shall quote the words: כי לא סגר דלתי בטני ki lo sagar dalthey bitni, because it did not shut up the doors of my belly. This is much more consistent with the feelings of humanity, than to wish his mother's womb to have been his grave.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 3:1-10

For seven days Job's friends sat by him in silence, without offering consolidation: at the same time Satan assaulted his mind to shake his confidence, and to fill him with hard thoughts of God. The permission seems to have extended to this, as well as to torturing the body. Job was an especial type of Christ, whose inward sufferings, both in the garden and on the cross, were the most dreadful; and arose in a great…

Read the full comment on Job 3:1-10 →

Job 3:10 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

כִּ֤יkiforH3588
לֹ֣אlo'notH3808
סָ֭גַרSa.garit shutH5462
דַּלְתֵ֣יdal.Tei[the] doors ofH1817
בִטְנִ֑יvit.Niwomb myH990
וַיַּסְתֵּ֥רvai.yas.Terand it hidH5641
עָ֝מָ֗ל'a.MaltroubleH5999
מֵעֵינָֽי\׃me.'ei.Naifrom eyes myH5869

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 3:10

  • Ecclesiastes 6:3-5

    If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he. For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.

  • Genesis 20:18

    For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham’s wife.

  • Jeremiah 20:17

    Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.

  • 1 Samuel 1:5

    But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the Lord had shut up her womb.

  • Genesis 29:31

    And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.

  • Ecclesiastes 11:10

    Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.

  • Job 6:2-3

    Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up.

  • Job 23:2

    Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

  • Job 10:1

    My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

  • Job 10:18-19

    Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
it shut not.
10:18,19; Ge 20:18; 29:31; 1Sa 1:5; Ec 6:3-5; Jer 20:17
hid.
6:2,3; 10:1; 23:2; Ec 11:10

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Job 3:9

    Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

  • Job 3:10

    Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

  • Job 3:11

    Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

Read all of Job 3

Job 3:10 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Por cuanto no cerró las puertas del vientre donde yo estaba, ni escondió de mis ojos la miseria.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Parce qu’elle n’a pas fermé les portes du sein qui m’a porté, et n’a pas caché la misère de devant mes yeux.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Denn sie hat die Pforte meines Mutterschoßes nicht verschlossen und Mühsal nicht verborgen vor meinen Augen. -
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Quia non conclusit ostia ventris qui portavit me, nec abstulit mala ab oculis meis.