Job 3:22

who rejoice ¹  even to jubilation, ²  and are exultant ³  when ⁴  they find the grave? ⁵ 

who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave?

Who rejoice greatly, And exult when they find the grave?

It is a blessed relief when they finally die, when they find the grave.

Who count the day of their death and burial the happiest day of their life?

Who are glad with great joy, and full of delight when they come to their last resting-place;

who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they find the grave?

Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad when they can find the grave?

who rejoice ¹  even to jubilation, ²  and are exultant ³  when ⁴  they find the grave? ⁵ 

¹ tn Here too the form is the participle in apposition “to him who is in misery” in v. 20. It continues the description of those who are destitute and would be delighted to die.

² tn The Syriac has “and gather themselves together,” possibly reading גִּיל (gil, “rejoicing”) as גַּל (gal, “heap”). Some have tried to emend the text to make the word mean “heap” or “mound,” as in a funerary mound. While one could argue for a heap of stones as a funerary mound, the passage has already spoken of digging a grave, which would be quite different. And while such a change would make a neater parallelism in the verse, there is no reason to force such; the idea of “jubilation” fits the tenor of the whole verse easily enough and there is no reason to change it. A similar expression is found in Hos 9:1, which says, “rejoice not, O Israel, with jubilation.” Here the idea then is that these sufferers would rejoice “to the point of jubilation” at death.

³ tn This sentence also parallels an imperfect verb with the substantival participle of the first colon. It is translated as an English present tense.

⁴ tn The particle could be “when” or “because” in this verse.

⁵ sn The expression “when they find a grave” means when they finally die. The verse describes the relief and rest that the sufferer will obtain when the long-awaited death is reached.