Job 3:11
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
American King James Version (AKJV)
Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
American Standard Version (ASV)
Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me?
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Why did death not take me when I came out of my mother's body, why did I not, when I came out, give up my last breath?
Webster's Revision
Why died I not from the womb? why did I not expire at the time of my birth?
World English Bible
"Why didn't I die from the womb? Why didn't I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
English Revised Version (ERV)
Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
Clarke's Job 3:11 Bible Commentary
Why died I not from the womb - As the other circumstance did not take place, why was I not still-born, without the possibility of reviviscence? or, as this did not occur, why did I not die as soon as born? These three things appear to me to be clearly intended here: -
1. Dying in the womb, or never coming to maturity, as in the case of an abortion.
2. Being still-born, without ever being able to breathe.
3. Or, if born alive, dying within a short time after. And to these states he seems to refer in the following verses.
Barnes's Job 3:11 Bible Commentary
Why died I not from the womb? - Why did I not die as soon as I was born? Why were any pains taken to keep me alive? The suggestion of this question leads Job in the following verses into the beautiful description, of what he would have been if he had then died. He complains, therefore, that any pains were taken by his friends to keep him alive, and that he was not suffered peacefully to expire.
Gave up the ghost - A phrase that is often used in the English version of the Bible to denote death; Genesis 49:33; Job 11:20; Job 14:10; Jeremiah 15:9; Matthew 27:50; Acts 5:10. It conveys an idea, however, which is not necessarily in the original, though the idea in itself is not incorrect. The idea conveyed by the phrase is that of yielding up the "spirit" or "soul," while the sense of the original here and elsewhere is simply "to expire, to die."
