Bible Commentary

Job 3:8

Job 3:8

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public Domain

Let them curse it that curse the day. Very different explanations are given of this passage. Some suppose it to mean, "Let those desperate men curse it who are in the habit of cursing their day," like Job himself () and Jeremiah ().

Others suggest a reference to such as claimed power to curse days, and to divide them into the lucky and the unlucky. In this case Job would mean, "Let the sorcerers who curse days curse especially this day," and would thus seem, if not to sanction the practice, at any rate to express a certain amount of belief in the sorcerers' power.

The second clause has also a double interpretation, which adapts it to either of these two suggested meanings (vide infra). Who are ready to raise up their mourning. This is an impossible rendering. Translate (with the Revised Version), who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

"Rousing leviathan" may be understood in two ways. It may be regarded as spoken in the literal sense of those who are rash enough and desperate enough to stir up the fury of the crocodile (see the comment on ), or in a metaphorical sense of such as stir up to action by their sorceries the great power of evil, symbolized in Oriental mythologies by a huge serpent, or dragon, or crocodile.

On the whole, the second and deeper sense seems preferable; and we may conceive of Job as believing in the power of sorcery, and wishing it used against the night which he so much dislikes.

The Daily Devotional

One devotional. Every morning.

The full reading, the passage behind it, and where to go deeper — in your inbox before the day starts. No ads, ever.

We'll send one email to confirm it's really you. Unsubscribe in one tap, any time.

Continue tomorrow

Turn Bible study into a daily habit

Read today's devotional, save your progress, and receive a gentle daily reminder.

Recommended reading

More for Job 3:8

Continue with other commentaries and DiscipleDeck content connected to this verse, chapter, or topic.