Job 3:6

Literal Standard Version

That night—let thick darkness take it, || Let it not be united to days of the year, || Let it not come into the number of months.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
If only darkness had taken that night away!May it not appear among the days of the yearor be listed in the calendar.

Hebrew Names Version
As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.

King James Version
As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

English Standard Version
That night—let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

New Century Version
Let thick darkness capture that night. Don't count it among the days of the year or put it in any of the months.

New English Translation
That night—let darkness seize it; let it not be included among the days of the year; let it not enter among the number of the months!

Amplified Bible
"As for that night, let darkness seize it; Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not be counted in the number of the months.

New American Standard Bible
"As for that night, may darkness seize it; May it not rejoice among the days of the year; May it not come into the number of the months.

World English Bible
As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Let darkenesse possesse that night, let it not be ioyned vnto the dayes of the yeere, nor let it come into the count of the moneths.

Legacy Standard Bible
As for that night, let thick darkness take it;Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;Let it not come into the number of the months.

Berean Standard Bible
If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year, or be entered in any of the months.

Contemporary English Version
Erase that night from the calendar and conceal it with darkness.

Complete Jewish Bible
may that night be desolate, may no cry of joy be heard in it;

Darby Translation
That night—let gloom seize upon it; let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

Easy-to-Read Version
I wish the darkness had carried away that night, that it was left off the calendar and not included in any of the months.

George Lamsa Translation
As for that night, let thick darkness cover it; let that day not be reckoned in the number of the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

Good News Translation
Blot that night out of the year, and never let it be counted again;

Lexham English Bible
Let darkness seize that night; let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not enter among the number of the months.

Literal Translation
As for that night, let darkness seize it! Let it not be joined to the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Let the darckstorme ouercome ye night, let it not be reckened amonge the dayes off the yeare, ner counted in the monethes.

American Standard Version
As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it: Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not come into the number of the months.

Bible in Basic English
That night--let the thick dark take it; let it not have joy among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Let the darke storme ouercome that night, and let it not be ioyned vnto the dayes of the yere, nor counted in the number of the monethes.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it;

King James Version (1611)
As for that night, let darkenesse seaze vpon it, let it not be ioyned vnto the dayes of the yeere, let it not come into the number of the moneths.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
let that day and night be cursed, let darkness carry them away; let it not come into the days of the year, neither let it be numbered with the days of the months.

English Revised Version
As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it: let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Derk whirlwynde holde that niyt; be it not rikynyd among the daies of the yeer, nethir be it noumbrid among the monethes.

Update Bible Version
As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it: Don't let it rejoice among the days of the year; Don't let it come into the number of the months.

Webster's Bible Translation
As [for] that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined to the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

New King James Version
As for that night, may darkness seize it;May it not rejoice [fn] among the days of the year,May it not come into the number of the months.

New Living Translation
Let that night be blotted off the calendar, never again to be counted among the days of the year, never again to appear among the months.

New Life Bible
As for that night, let darkness take hold of it. Let it not have joy among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of months.

New Revised Standard
That night—let thick darkness seize it! let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
That night, darkness take it, - May it not rejoice among the days of the year, Into the number of months, let it not enter.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Let a darksome whirlwind seize upon that night, let it not be counted in the days of the year, nor numbered in the months.

Revised Standard Version
That night--let thick darkness seize it! let it not rejoice among the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

Young's Literal Translation
That night -- let thick darkness take it, Let it not be united to days of the year, Into the number of months let it not come.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"As for that night, let darkness seize it; Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not come into the number of the months.

Contextual Overview

¹After this Job has opened his mouth, and reviles his day. ²And Job answers and says: ³"Let the day perish in which I am born, || And the night that has said: A man-child has been conceived. ⁴That day—let it be darkness, || Do not let God require it from above, || Nor let light shine on it. ⁵Let darkness and death-shade redeem it, || Let a cloud dwell on it, || Let them terrify it as the most bitter of days. ⁶That night—let thick darkness take it, || Let it not be united to days of the year, || Let it not come into the number of months.⁷Behold! That night—let it be barren, || Let no singing come into it. ⁸Let the cursers of day mark it, || Who are ready to wake up Leviathan. ⁹Let the stars of its twilight be dark, || Let it wait for light, and there is none, || And let it not look on the eyelids of the dawn. ¹⁰Because it has not shut the doors || Of the womb that was mine! And hide misery from my eyes.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

let it not be joined unto the days: or, let it not rejoice among the days

Reciprocal: Job 18:2 - mark

Cross-References

Genesis 3:1
And the serpent has been cunning above every beast of the field which YHWH God has made, and he says to the woman, "Is it true that God has said, You do not eat from every tree of the garden?"

Genesis 3:2
And the woman says to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we eat,

Genesis 3:12
And the man says, "The woman whom You placed with me—she has given to me from the tree, and I eat."

Genesis 3:14
And YHWH God says to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed [are] you above all the livestock, and above every beast of the field: on your belly you go, and dust you eat, [for] all days of your life;

Genesis 3:15
and I put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He bruises your head, and you bruise His heel."

Genesis 3:17
And to the man He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and eat from the tree concerning which I have charged you, saying, You do not eat of it, cursed [is] the ground on your account; in sorrow you eat of it [for] all days of your life,

Genesis 3:19
by the sweat of your face you eat bread until your return to the ground, for you have been taken out of it, for dust you [are], and to dust you return."

Genesis 6:2
and the sons of God see that they, the daughters of men, [are] beautiful, and they take women for themselves of all whom they have chosen.

Genesis 39:7
And it comes to pass after these things, that his lord's wife lifts up her eyes to Joseph and says, "Lie with me";

Joshua 7:21
and I see among the spoil a good robe of Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and one wedge of gold, whose weight [is] fifty shekels, and I desire them, and take them; and behold, they [are] hid in the earth, in the midst of my tent, and the silver [is] under it."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

As [for] that night,.... The night of conception; Job imprecated evils on the day he was born, now on the night he was conceived in, the returns of it:

let darkness seize upon it; let it not only he deprived of the light of the moon and stars, but let an horrible darkness seize upon it, that it may be an uncommon and a terrible one:

let it not be joined unto the days of the year; the solar year, and make one of them; or, "let it not be one among them" c, let it come into no account, and when it is sought for, let it not appear, but be found wanting; "or let it not joy" or "rejoice among the days of the year" d, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and others interpret it, or be a joyful one, or anything joyful done or enjoyed in it:

let it not come into the number of the months; meaning not the intercalated months, as Sephorno, nor the feasts of the new moon, as others, but let it not serve to make up a month, which consists of so many days and nights, according to the course of the moon; the sense both of this and the former clause is, let it be struck out of the calendar.

c אל יחד "non sit una inter dies", Pagninus; "ne adunatur in diebus", Montanus. d "Ne fuisset gavisa", Junius Tremellius "ne gaudeat", Vatablus, Beza, Mercerus, Piscator, Drusius, Broughton, Cocceius, Schmidt, Schultens, Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

As for “that night.” Job, having cursed the day, proceeds to utter a malediction on the “night” also; see Job 3:3. This malediction extends to Job 3:9.

Let darkness seize upon it - Hebrew, Let it take it. Let deep and horrid darkness seize it as its own. Let no star arise upon it; let it be unbroken and uninterrupted gloom. The word “darkness,” however, does not quite express the force of the original. The word used here אפל 'ôphel is poetic, and denotes darkness more intense than is denoted by the word which is usually rendered “darkness” השׁך chôshek. It is a darkness accompanied with clouds and with a tempest. Herder understands it as meaning, that darkness should seize upon that night and bear it away, so that it should not be joined to the months of the year. So the Chaldee. But the true sense is, that Job wished so deep darkness to possess it, that no star would rise upon it; no light whatever be seen. A night like this Seneca beautifully describes in Agamemnon, verses 465ff:

Nox prima coeltum sparserat stellis,

Cum subito luna conditur, stellae cadunt;

In astra pontus tollitur, et coelum petit.

Nec una nox est, densa tenebras obruit

Caligo, et Omni luce subducta, fretum

Coelumque miscet ...

Premunt tenebrae lumina, et dirae stygis

Inferna nox est.

Let it not be joined unto the days of the year - Margin, “rejoice among.” So Good and Noyes render it. The word used here יחד yı̂chad, according to the present pointing, is the apocopated future of חדה chādâh, “to rejoice, to be glad.” If the pointing were different יחד yâchad it would be the future of יחד yachad, to be one; to be united, or joined to. The Masoretic points are of no authority, and the interpretation which supposes that the word means here to exult or rejoice, is more poetical and beautiful. It is then a representation of the days of the year as rejoicing together, and a wish is expressed that “that” night might never be allowed to partake of the general joy while the months rolled around. In this interpretation Rosenmuller and Gesenius concur. Dodwell supposes that there is an allusion to a custom among the ancients, by which inauspicious days were stricken from the calendar, and their place supplied by intercalary days. But there is no evidence of the existence of snell a custom in the time of Job.

Let it not come etc - Let it never be reckoned among the days which go to make up the number of the months. Let there be always a blank there; let its place always be lacking.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 3:6. As for that night, let darkness seize upon it — I think the Targum has hit the sense of this whole verse: "Let darkness seize upon that night; let it not be reckoned among the annual festivals; in the number of the months of the calendar let it not be computed."

Some understand the word אפל ophel as signifying a dark storm; hence the Vulgate, tenebrosus turbo, "a dark whirlwind." And hence Coverdale, Let the darck storme overcome that night, let it not be reckoned amonge the dayes off the yeare, nor counted in the monethes. Every thing is here personified; day, night, darkness, shadow of death, cloud, c. and the same idea of the total extinction of that portion of time, or its being rendered ominous and portentous, is pursued through all these verses, from the third to the ninth, inclusive. The imagery is diversified, the expressions varied, but the idea is the same.