because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.
Job's lament reaches back past his pain to his birth, and blames that day for letting him out into the light. Two questions follow: was this cursing God, and what was God doing in letting a godly man come to such words?
The Charge Against the Day
Job does not simply wish for death now; he traces his misery to the moment the womb opened. One writer unfolds the question inside it. If this was always going to be his lot, why was he born at all, and why the care that kept him alive?
William KellyAnd so he asks, in the anguish of his soul, why, if such was to be his lot living, did he not die from the womb? Why should he have been so tenderly cared for, only to meet such agony in the end?
Not Cursing God — But Not Faith Either
Job curses the day, not God. Yet a wish that the womb had stayed shut aims at more than a date on the calendar. It reaches for something God settled long ago.
Leslie M. GrantJob did not even now charge God foolishly, but he did curse the day of his birth. This did not blame God directly. But however little he realised it, it blamed God indirectly, for it was God who gave him life... Later Job would thank God he had been born, and that thankfulness will endure for eternity... The doors of Job's mother's womb had been opened long ago (v.10), and Job knew this could never be reversed. But he was moved by his anguish, not by faith.
What He Was Really Cursing
The verse names two things: doors that were not shut, and trouble that was not hidden. Wishing them otherwise, Job turns against his own helpless infancy and the love that met it.
Samuel RidoutIt is sad when a man cannot look back on those early days of helplessness with tender thoughts. Loving care watched over him when he was too young to know it. Of all creatures, man is the most helpless and dependent in infancy. It is to "hide pride" from him, and to call forth love on his behalf. To curse his infancy like this was to trample on what is best in our fallen humanity. It shows a soul far from communion with God. Job had forgotten all the past; the sorrow of the present had eclipsed everything else.
Why a Godly Man Speaks This Way
Jeremiah later cursed the day of his birth in almost the same terms, so the question is not peculiar to Job. Commentators locate the root of it well behind the ash-heap.
H. L. RossierThe original cause of such despair lies deeper. If the creature had not turned away from his Creator in the beginning, he would not now curse his existence. When men like Job and Jeremiah could curse the day of their birth, it only proves how far man has drifted away from God. As long as all goes well, the rebellion and sullenness of the human heart stay hidden. Trials bring them to light. Temptations are therefore good and necessary — not so that God may find out what is in man's heart... but so that man may learn to know himself.
That self-knowledge is not the end. God has a further aim in what He allows.
C. H. MackintoshOne great object in God's dealings with souls is to produce real brokenness and humility. He strips us of all false righteousness, empties us of all self-confidence, and teaches us to lean wholly on Christ. Everyone must pass through what we may call the process of stripping and emptying.
A Birthday Worth Blessing
Job wanted his birth erased. Paul suffered too, yet never spoke this way, because he had another birth to look back on.
Samuel RidoutWhat a contrast this is to the joy of the believer as he dwells on his spiritual birthday. How Paul loved to look back to the time when the light above the brightness of the sun shone into his darkened heart... So in the many persecutions and afflictions that came on him for the gospel's sake, we hear not even a hint of these laments of Job. He and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison, their feet fastened in the stocks. Even then their thoughts were not of cursing the day of their birth. They brought songs in the night.
Summary
- Cause. Job's words do not curse God, yet they blame Him indirectly, since it was God who gave him life. Anguish moves him here, not faith.
- Care. The doors he wished had stayed shut opened onto years of loving care. Cursing his infancy tramples on what is best in fallen humanity.
- Concealment. He wanted trouble hidden from his eyes. God uses trial to bring hidden things to light instead — not to inform Himself, but so man learns to know himself.
- Cost. God strips away false righteousness and empties out self-confidence. He teaches the soul to lean wholly on Christ.
- Consequence. Job would later thank God for his birth, and that thankfulness will last for eternity. The cursed birthday gives way to a birthday worth blessing.