Job 3:16

Or why ¹  was ²  I not buried ³  like a stillborn infant, ⁴  like infants ⁵  who have never seen the light? ⁶ 

Or why was I not hidden in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day?

"Or like a miscarriage which is discarded, I would not be, As infants that never saw light.

Why was I not buried like a stillborn child, like a baby who never lives to see the light?

Why wasn't I stillborn and buried with all the babies who never saw light,

Or as a child dead at birth I might never have come into existence; like young children who have not seen the light.

Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child, like an infant that never sees the light?

Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, Like infants who never saw light?

Or why ¹  was ²  I not buried ³  like a stillborn infant, ⁴  like infants ⁵  who have never seen the light? ⁶ 

¹ tn The verb is governed by the interrogative of v. 12 that introduces this series of rhetorical questions.

² tn The verb is again the prefix conjugation, but the narrative requires a past tense, or preterite.

³ tn Heb “hidden.” The LXX paraphrases: “an untimely birth, proceeding from his mother’s womb.”

⁴ tn The noun נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”) is the abortive thing that falls (hence the verb) from the womb before the time is ripe (Ps 58:9). The idiom using the verb “to fall” from the womb means to come into the world (Isa 26:18). The epithet טָמוּן (tamun, “hidden”) is appropriate to the verse. The child comes in vain, and disappears into the darkness – it is hidden forever.

⁵ tn The word עֹלְלִים (’olÿlim) normally refers to “nurslings.” Here it must refer to infants in general since it refers to a stillborn child.

⁶ tn The relative clause does not have the relative pronoun; the simple juxtaposition of words indicates that it is modifying the infants.