SEV Biblia, Chapter 3:1
¶ Después de esto abrió Job su boca, y maldijo su día.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Job 3:1
Verse 1. After this opened Job his mouth ] After the seven days' mourning was over, there being no prospect of relief, Job is represented as thus cursing the day of his birth. Here the poetic part of the book begins; for most certainly there is nothing in the preceding chapters either in the form or spirit of Hebrew poetry. It is easy indeed to break the sentences into hemistichs; but this does not constitute them poetry: for, although Hebrew poetry is in general in hemistichs, yet it does not follow that the division of narrative into hemistichs must necessarily constitute it poetry. In many cases the Asiatic poets introduce their compositions with prose narrative; and having in this way prepared the reader for what he is to expect, begin their deevans, cassidehs, gazels, &c. This appears to be the plan followed by the author of this book. Those who still think, after examining the structure of those chapters, and comparing them with the undoubted poetic parts of the book, that they also, and the ten concluding verses, are poetry, have my consent, while I take the liberty to believe most decidedly the opposite.
Cursed his day. ] That is, the day of his birth; and thus he gave vent to the agonies of his soul, and the distractions of his mind. His execrations have something in them awfully solemn, tremendously deep, and strikingly sublime. But let us not excuse all the things which he said in his haste, and in the bitterness of his soul, because of his former well established character of patience. He bore all his privations with becoming resignation to the Divine will and providence: but now, feeling himself the subject of continual sufferings, being in heaviness through manifold temptation, and probably having the light of God withdrawn from his mind, as his consolations most undoubtedly were, he regrets that ever he was born; and in a very high strain of impassioned poetry curses his day.
We find a similar execration to this in Jeremiah, Jer. xx. 14-18, and in other places; which, by the way, are no proofs that the one borrowed from the other; but that this was the common mode of Asiatic thinking, speaking, and feeling, on such occasions.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-10 - For seven days Job's friends sat by him in silence, without offerin consolidation: at the same time Satan assaulted his mind to shake his confidence, and to fill him with hard thoughts of God. The permissio seems to have extended to this, as well as to torturing the body. Jo 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 grea degree from the assaults of Satan in that hour of darkness. Thes inward trials show the reason of the change that took place in Job' conduct, from entire submission to the will of God, to the impatienc which appears here, and in other parts of the book. The believer, wh knows that a few drops of this bitter cup are more dreadful than the sharpest outward afflictions, while he is favoured with a sweet sens of the love and presence of God, will not be surprised to find that Jo proved a man of like passions with others; but will rejoice that Sata was disappointed, and could not prove him a hypocrite; for though he cursed the day of his birth, he did not curse his God. Job doubtles was afterwards ashamed of these wishes, and we may suppose what must by his judgment of them now he is in everlasting happiness.
Original Hebrew
אחרי 310 כן 3651 פתח 6605 איוב 347 את 853 פיהו 6310 ויקלל 7043 את 853 יומו׃ 3117
