Job's Grief

As Job started to grief, we firstly see Job being consoled by his 3 friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. In Job 2:13 we see one of the best ways for friends to provide comfort by just being there for support, not needing to say anything in particular.


In Job 3 we can see Job's griefing process involve a lot of self-pitying thoughts. Most of us felt like this one degree or other at some time in our lives. Although Job sounded quite extreme, to the point of questioning whether he should be born, one of the best thing about Job is that he was not blaming God, even though he believed God was responsible.


Verse 23 reference to light, seems to show that Job realized that God had great favor on him, and also hinting that he knows about God's Hedge of protection around him. Perhaps like us sometimes, Job doesn't fully understand why disaster is happening in his life, but the good thing about Job is that he realizes that he is favored by God.






Job 2:
¹¹ Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him. ¹² And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. ¹³ So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.


Job 3:


¹ After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. ² And Job spoke, and said:
 ³ “May the day perish on which I was born,
      And the night in which it was said, 

      ‘A male child is conceived.’
 ⁴ May that day be darkness;
      May God above not seek it,
      Nor the light shine upon it.
 ⁵ May darkness and the shadow of death claim it;
      May a cloud settle on it;
      May the blackness of the day terrify it.
 ⁶ As for that night, may darkness seize it;
      May it not rejoice^[a] among the days of the year,
      May it not come into the number of the months.
 ⁷ Oh, may that night be barren!
      May no joyful shout come into it!
 ⁸ May those curse it who curse the day,
      Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan.
 ⁹ May the stars of its morning be dark;
      May it look for light, but have none,
      And not see the dawning of the day;
 ¹⁰ Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,
      Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.
 ¹¹ “Why did I not die at birth?
      Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?
 ¹² Why did the knees receive me?
      Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
 ¹³ For now I would have lain still and been quiet,
      I would have been asleep;
      Then I would have been at rest
 ¹⁴ With kings and counselors of the earth,
      Who built ruins for themselves,
 ¹⁵ Or with princes who had gold,
      Who filled their houses with silver;
 ¹⁶ Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child,
      Like infants who never saw light?
 ¹⁷ There the wicked cease from troubling,
      And there the weary are at rest.
 ¹⁸ There the prisoners rest together;
      They do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
 ¹⁹ The small and great are there,
      And the servant is free from his master.
 ²⁰ “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
      And life to the bitter of soul,
 ²¹ Who long for death, but it does not come,
      And search for it more than hidden treasures;
 ²² Who rejoice exceedingly,
      And are glad when they can find the grave?
 ²³ Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
      And whom God has hedged in?
 ²⁴ For my sighing comes before I eat,^[b]
      And my groanings pour out like water.
 ²⁵ For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me,
      And what I dreaded has happened to me.
 ²⁶ I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
      I have no rest, for trouble comes.”