Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Job opens his mouth and curses the day he was born. Verse 5 is the heart of that curse: he calls on gloom, deep darkness and cloud to take that day back and frighten it out of existence.
The Words of the Curse
Job's curse runs through the day and then the night. One writer renders the Hebrew line by line:
William KellyThat day! let it be darkness; let not God from above ask after it; and let not light shine upon it. Let darkness and death's shadow reclaim it; let clouds settle over it; let the darkenings of the day terrify it. That night! let thick darkness seize it.
(Kelly gives his own translation of the Hebrew here, not the ESV. Where the ESV reads "deep darkness," he has "death's shadow.")
A Day Struck Off the Calendar
Job does not curse his enemies or his losses. He curses a date, and the return of that date every year.
Samuel RidoutIn this first part Job curses the day of his birth, wishes that it could be blotted out of the calendar, because it allowed his birth. He desires that that day and night never come into remembrance — so that the very recurrence of the day that was a reminder of his existence might cease.
Wishing for the Impossible
Job asks for something that cannot happen. One writer traces where such words come from:
Leslie M. GrantJob's grief was so deep that he did not even consider that what he was saying was an impossibility. How could the day perish in which Job was born? How could history reverse itself? That day had passed long before and at the time was a day of light that a man-child had been born into the world. Could Job's words change that light to darkness? He mentions God once in this section, desiring that God would ignore that day. Later Job would thank God he had been born, and that thankfulness will endure for eternity… But he was moved by his anguish, not by faith.
An Eclipse of Faith
Job's wish sounds like words the Lord once spoke about one man only. One writer weighs the difference:
Samuel RidoutOf only one man has it ever been said — by our Lord "It would have been better for that man if he had not been born" (Matthew 26:24). Judas was an apostate. He was the "son of destruction," and Satan entered into his heart… For a child of God to wish he had never been born shows a complete, though only temporary, eclipse of faith.
Why God Let These Words Come Out
A crushing blow first leaves a man with nothing to say. One writer explains why the complaint came later, and what God meant to do with it:
The Bible TreasuryA terrible blow can shut a man off from everything around him so completely that he does not even try to complain or to speak… But the moment he wakes up to where he stands in relation to everything here, self must occupy him — unless he is done with himself. God sends this discipline to set aside self, and to bring the heart into its true relation with God, apart from self. So the discipline exposes the secret workings and feelings of self. Otherwise they would never be detected or known — and if not known, never renounced.
The Sufferer Who Never Cursed His Day
Job is famous for patience. One writer sets that patience beside Christ:
J. N. Darby"You have heard of the patience of Job?" Yet he opened his mouth to curse his day. He complained that the Preserver of man had set him up as a target, so that he was a burden to himself. In Christ nothing was brought out but what was perfect.
Summary
- Darkness asked for. Job calls gloom, cloud and deep darkness to take back the day of his birth. He wants the date blotted out of the calendar, so its yearly return can never remind him he exists.
- Darkness that changes nothing. The day cannot perish. History cannot reverse itself. These are words shaped by anguish, not by faith.
- Darkness in a believer. The Lord said of Judas, not of a believer, that he would have been better off never born. In a child of God such a wish marks a real but temporary eclipse of faith.
- Darkness with a purpose. Suffering brings self to the surface. God uses it to expose feelings that would otherwise never be detected — and so never renounced.
- Darkness answered. Job would one day thank God he had been born. Where Job cursed his day, in Christ nothing came out but what was perfect.