job 2 and 3

Read Job 2 and 3 at Bible Gateway.

Hebrew paragraph divisions

Job 2:1-10 {p} Job loses his health, but does not curse God
Job 2:11-3:1 {p} The coming of Job’s three friends

For the series of speeches from Job 3:2-28:10, the Hebrew paragraph divisions for each man’s speech are like the divisions in the Psalms that we studied in 2014. There is an understood {s} division at the end of each numbered line, with an {n} marking where a new line begins within a numbered line. There are only two {n} divisions in Job’s speech from Job 3:2-26, and both are marked with in the chiastic structure.

Job 3:2-26, Job’s lament chiastic structure

1a) Job 3:2-3 {s+s} And Job spoke, and said: May the day perish on which I was born + the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived;’

1b) Job 3:4-7 {sx4} May that day be darkness + may that night be barren;

1a) Job 3:4a {n} May that day be darkness;
1b) Job 3:4b {s} May God above not seek it, nor the light shine upon it;
1c) Job 3:5a, May darkness and the shadow of death claim it;
central axis) Job 3:5b {s} May a cloud settle on it + the blackness of the day terrify it;
2c) Job 3:6a {n} As for that night, may darkness seize it;
2b) Job 3:6b {s} May it not rejoice among the days of the year, may it not come into the number of the months;
2a) Job 3:7 {s} Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it!

central axis) Job 3:8 {s} May those curse it who curse the day, those who are ready to arouse Leviathan;

2b) Job 3:9-10 {s+s} May the stars of its morning be dark; may it look for light, but have none + not see the dawning of the day, because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide sorrow from my eyes;

2a) Job 3:11-26 {sx16} Why did I not perish on the day of my birth;

1a) Job 3:11-12 {s+s} Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
1b) Job 3:13a, For now I would have lain still + been quiet;
central axis) Job 3:13b, I would have been asleep;
2b) Job 3:13c-15 {sx3} Then I would have been at rest {s} with kings + counselors of the earth, who built ruins for themselves {s} or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver {s};
2a) Job 3:16-26 {sx11} Why was I not hidden like a stillborn child;

1a) Job 3:16-17a, Why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light? {s} There the wicked cease from troubling;
1b) Job 3:17b-19 {sx3} There the weary are at rest + there the prisoners rest together;

1a) Job 3:17b-18a, There the weary are at rest {s} + there the prisoners rest together;
central axis) Job 3:18b {s} They do not hear the voice of the oppressor;
2a) Job 3:19 {s} The small and great are there + the servant is free from his master;

1c) Job 3:20-24 {sx5} Why is light + life given to him who is in misery + bitter of soul;

1a) Job 3:20 {s} Why is light given to him who is in misery + life to the bitter of soul;
1b) Job 3:21 {s} Who long for death, but it does not come + search for it more than hidden treasures;
central axis) Job 3:22a, Who rejoice exceedingly and are glad;
2b) Job 3:22b {s} When they can find the grave?
2a) Job 3:23-24 {s+s} Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes before I eat + my groanings pour out like water;

central axis) Job 3:25 {s} For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me + what I dreaded has happened to me;
2c) Job 3:26a, I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
2b) Job 3:26b, I have no rest;
2a) Job 3:26c {s} For trouble comes.

For further study on site

job 1 and 2, his place in history (2015)
job 1 and 2 reverse parallelism (2016)

For further study off site

John Gill’s introduction to the book of Job
The Remarkable Record of Job – Henry M. Morris