3:10 because it 1 did not shut the doors 2 of my mother’s womb on me, 3
nor did it hide trouble 4 from my eyes!
10:18 “Why then did you bring me out from the womb?
I should have died 5
and no eye would have seen me!
24:20 The womb 6 forgets him,
the worm feasts on him,
no longer will he be remembered.
Like a tree, wickedness will be broken down.
31:18 but from my youth I raised the orphan 7 like a father,
and from my mother’s womb 8
I guided the widow! 9
1 tn The subject is still “that night.” Here, at the end of this first section, Job finally expresses the crime of that night – it did not hinder his birth.
2 sn This use of doors for the womb forms an implied comparison; the night should have hindered conception (see Gen 20:18 and 1 Sam 1:5).
3 tn The Hebrew has simply “my belly [= womb].” The suffix on the noun must be objective – it was the womb of Job’s mother in which he lay before his birth. See however N. C. Habel, “The Dative Suffix in Job 33:13,” Bib 63 (1982): 258-59, who thinks it is deliberately ambiguous.
4 tn The word עָמָל (’amal) means “work, heavy labor, agonizing labor, struggle” with the idea of fatigue and pain.
5 tn The two imperfect verbs in this section are used to stress regrets for something which did not happen (see GKC 317 §107.n).
6 tn Here “womb” is synecdoche, representing one’s mother.
7 tn Heb “he grew up with me.” Several commentators have decided to change the pronoun to “I,” and make it causative.
8 tn The expression “from my mother’s womb” is obviously hyperbolic. It is a way of saying “all his life.”
9 tn Heb “I guided her,” referring to the widow mentioned in v. 16.