Job 10:18

18 And wherefore hast Thou brought me forth out of the womb? I should have expired, that no eye had seen me, 19 I should have been as though I had never been, Carried from the womb to the grave. 20 Are not my days few? then cease And turn from me, that I may become a little cheerful, 21 Before I go to return no more Into the land of darkness and of the shadow of death, 22 The land of deep darkness like to midnight, Of the shadow of death and of confusion, And which is bright like midnight. The question Wherefore? Job 10:18, is followed by futt. as modi conditionales (Ges. 127, 5) of that which would and should have happened, if God had not permitted him to be born alive: I should have expired, prop. I ought to have expired, being put back to the time of birth (comp. Job 3:13, where the praet. more objectively expressed what would then have happened). These modi condit. are continued in Job 10:19 : I should have been (sc. in the womb) as though I had not been (comp. the short elliptical (Note: כלא is there = לא כאשׁר, like ללא, Isa 65:1 = לא לאשׁר [vid. Ges. 123, 3], and כּ is used as a conjunction as little as ל (vid., on Psa 38:14).) expression, Oba 1:16), i.e., as one who had scarcely entered upon existence, and that only of the earliest (as at conception); I should have been carried (הוּבל, as Job 21:32) from the womb (without seeing the light as one born alive) to the grave. This detestation of his existence passes into the wish, Job 10:20, that God would be pleased at least somewhat to relieve him ere he is swallowed up by the night of Hades. We must neither with the Targ. translate: are not my days few, and vanishing away? nor with Oetinger: will not my fewness of days cease? Both are contrary to the correct accentuation. Olshausen thinks it remarkable that there…

Job owns here that he was full of confusion (Job 10:15), and as he was so was his discourse: he knew not what to say, and perhaps sometimes scarcely knew what he said. In this chapter, I. He complains of the hardships he was under (Job 10:1-7), and then comforts himself with this, that he was in the hand of the God that made him, and pleads that (Job 10:8-13). II. He complains again of the severity of God's dealings with him (Job 10:14-17), and then comforts himself with this, that death would put an end to his troubles (Job 10:18-22).