Job again picks up his death wish from 3.11-26. Why didst thou bring me forth from the womb?: Job does not repeat the exact words of 3.11 which ask “Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?” In 3.11 Job did not ask why God allowed him to be born, but here in verse 18 he blames God directly for his tragic existence. The line may be rendered “Why did you allow me to be born?” “Why did you let me come out of my mother’s womb?” or “I wish you had never let me come out of my mother’s womb.”

Would that I had died before any eye had seen me: in 3.16 Job envies babies that never lived to see the light of day, and here in a similar vein he wishes that nobody had ever seen him alive. The line may also be expressed “I wish I had died before anyone saw me” or “I wish I had died before I was born.”

And were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave: this verse continues the lament begun in verse 18. The Revised Standard Version wording follows closely the structure of the Hebrew text and therefore is not particularly clear. Job is saying that he wishes he had never lived but had died at birth and been buried. Good News Translation makes this clear with a noun clause as subject: “To go from the womb straight to the grave would have been….” This line may also be translated, for example, “I wish I had died and they had buried me immediately. That would have been better than living.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .