Job 3:14

"For now I should have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,"

Key Reflection

In Job 3:14, the prophet reflects on his earlier life, suggesting that if he had died as an infant, he would have experienced a state of perfect rest and tranquility. This passage highlights the stark contrast between the suffering Job endures and the peaceful existence he envisions from infancy, resonating with the original audience who might have also grappled with the loss of infants or young children, making his lament particularly poignant.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

With kings -Reposing as they do. This is the language of calm meditation on what would have been the consequence if he had died when he was an infant. He seems to delight to dwell on it. He contrasts it with his present situation. He pauses on the thought that that would have been an honorable repose. He would have been numbered with kings and princes. Is there not here a little spice of ambition even in his sorrows and humilation? Job had been an eminently rich man; a man greatly honored; an emir; a magistrate; one in whose presence even princes refrained talking, and before whom nobles held their peace;Job 29:9. Now he was stripped of his honors, and made to sit in ashes.

Related Verses

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