Job 3:3

“Let the day on which ¹  I was born ²  perish, and the night that said, ³  ‘A man ⁴  has been conceived!’ ⁵ 

"May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is born!’

"Let the day perish on which I was to be born, And the night which said, ‘A boy is conceived.’

"Cursed be the day of my birth, and cursed be the night when I was conceived.

"Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived!

Let destruction take the day of my birth, and the night on which it was said, A man child has come into the world.

"Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man-child is conceived.’

"May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.’

“Let the day on which ¹  I was born ²  perish, and the night that said, ³  ‘A man ⁴  has been conceived!’ ⁵ 

¹ tn The relative clause is carried by the preposition with the resumptive pronoun: “the day [which] I was born in it” meaning “the day on which I was born” (see GKC 486-88 §155.f, i).

² tn The verb is the Niphal imperfect. It may be interpreted in this dependent clause (1) as representing a future event from some point of time in the past – “the day on which I was born” or “would be born” (see GKC 316 §107.k). Or (2) it may simply serve as a preterite indicating action that is in the past.

³ tn The MT simply has “and the night – it said….” By simple juxtaposition with the parallel construction (“on which I was born”) the verb “it said” must be a relative clause explaining “the night.” Rather than supply “in which” and make the verb passive (which is possible since no specific subject is provided, but leaves open the question of who said it), it is preferable to take the verse as a personification. First Job cursed the day; now he cursed the night that spoke about what it witnessed. See A. Ehrman, “A Note on the Verb ‘amar,” JQR 55 (1964/65): 166-67.

⁴ tn The word is גֶּבֶר (gever, “a man”). The word usually distinguishes a man as strong, distinct from children and women. Translations which render this as “boy” (to remove the apparent contradiction of an adult being “conceived” in the womb) miss this point.

⁵ sn The announcement at birth is to the fact that a male was conceived. The same parallelism between “brought forth/born” and “conceived” may be found in Ps 51:7 HT (51:5 ET). The motifs of the night of conception and the day of birth will be developed by Job. For the entire verse, which is more a wish or malediction than a curse, see S. H. Blank, “‘Perish the Day!’ A Misdirected Curse (Job 3:3),” Prophetic Thought, 61-63.