Job 3 · Verse 8

Job 3:8

Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
Job 3:8, King James Version

Job 3:8 in other translations

BSBMay it be cursed by those who curse the day— those prepared to rouse Leviathan.
WEBLet them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
ASVLet them curse it that curse the day, Who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
YLTLet the cursers of day mark it, Who are ready to wake up Leviathan.
DARBYLet them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to rouse Leviathan;
BBELet it be cursed by those who put a curse on the day; who are ready to make Leviathan awake.
WebsterLet them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.

What does Job 3:8 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
8. them ... curse the day--If "mourning" be the right rendering in the latter clause of this verse, these words refer to the hired mourners of the dead (Jr 9:17). But the Hebrew for "mourning" elsewhere always denotes an animal, whether it be the crocodile or some huge serpent (Is 27:1), such as is meant by "leviathan." Therefore, the expression, "cursers of day," refers to magicians, who were believed to be able by charms to make a day one of evil omen. (So Balaam, Nu 22:5). This accords with Umbreit's view (Job 3:7); or to the Ethiopians and Atlantes, who "used to curse the sun at his rising for burning up them and their country" [Herodotus]. Necromancers claimed power to control or rouse wild beasts at will, as do the Indian serpent-charmers of our day (Psa 58:5). Job does not say they had the power they claimed; but, supposing they had, may they curse the day. Schuttens renders it by supplying words as follows:--Let those that are ready for anything, call it (the day) the raiser up of leviathan, that is, of a host of evils.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 8 Let them curse it that curse the day - This translation is scarcely intelligible. I have waded through a multitude of interpretations, without being able to collect from them such a notion of the verse as could appear to me probable. Schultens, Rosenmller, and after them Mr. Good, have labored much to make it plain. They think the custom of sorcerers who had execrations for peoples, places, things, days, etc., is here referred to; such as Balaam, Elymas, and many others were: but I cannot think that a man who knew the Divine Being and his sole government of the world so well as Job did, would make such an allusion, who must have known that such persons and their pretensions were impostors and execrable vanities. I shall give as near a translation as I can of the words, and subjoin a short paraphrase: יקבהו אררי יום העתידימערר לויתן yikkebuhu orerey yom haathidim orer livyathan; "Let them curse it who detest the day; them who are ready to raise up the leviathan." That is, Let them curse my birthday who hate daylight, such as adulterers, murderers, thieves, and banditti, for whose practices the night is more convenient; and let them curse it who, being like me weary of life, are desperate enough to provoke the leviathan, the crocodile, to tear them to pieces. This version is nearly the same as that given by Coverdale. Let them that curse the daye give it their curse also, then those that be ready to rayse up leviathan. By leviathan some understand the greatest and most imminent dangers; and others, the devil, whom the enchanters are desperate enough to attempt to raise by their incantations. Calmet understands the whole to be spoken of the Atlantes, a people of Ethiopia, who curse the sun because it parches their fields and their bodies; and who fearlessly attack, kill, and eat the crocodile. This seems a good sense.

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 3:8 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.

יִקְּבֻ֥הוּyi.ke.Vu.hulet them curse itH6895
אֹרְרֵי\־'o.re.rei-cursers ofH779
י֑וֹםYoma dayH3117
הָ֝עֲתִידִ֗יםha.'a.ti.Dimthe [ones] readyH6264
עֹרֵ֥ר'o.Rerto rouseH5782
לִוְיָתָֽן\׃liv.ya.TanLeviathanH3882

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

Cross references for Job 3:8

  • Job 41:1

    Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

  • Job 41:10

    None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

  • 2 Chronicles 35:25

    And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.

  • Jeremiah 9:17-18

    Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come: And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

  • Job 41:25

    When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.

  • Mark 5:38

    And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly.

  • Matthew 11:17

    And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.

  • Amos 5:16

    Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.

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

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
who are ready.
2Ch 35:25; Jer 9:17,18; Am 5:16; Mt 11:17; Mr 5:38
their mourning. or, a leviathan.
41:1,10

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

Context

  • Job 3:7

    Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.

  • Job 3:8

    Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.

  • 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:

Read all of Job 3

Job 3:8 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Maldíganla los que maldicen al día, los que se aprestan para levantar su llanto.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Que ceux qui maudissent le jour la maudissent, ceux qui sont prêts à réveiller Léviathan!
German
Elberfelder 1871		Verwünschen mögen sie die Verflucher des Tages, die fähig sind, den Leviathan aufzureizen!
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Maledicant ei qui maledicunt diei, qui parati sunt suscitare Leviathan.