Job 3:11

9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?

13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB
Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?
KJV
Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
WEB
“Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
ASV
Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me?
DARBY
Wherefore did I not die from the womb, come forth from the belly and expire?
BLB
Why did I not die from the womb? I should have come forth from the belly and expired!
ÅB
Hvorfor døde jeg ikke i mors liv? Hvorfor utåndet jeg ikke straks i fødselsstunden?
OTB
“Hvorfor omkom jeg ikke ved fødselen,
kom ut av livmoren og utåndet?
B1930
Hvorfor døde jeg ikke i mors liv? Hvorfor utåndet jeg ikke straks i fødselsstunden?

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

  • Isaiah 46:3

    Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb:

    Read in context
  • Job 10:18–19

    Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!

    Read in context
  • Hosea 9:14

    Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

    Read in context
  • Jeremiah 15:10

    Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.

    Read in context
  • Psalms 139:13–16

    For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

    Read in context
  • Psalms 58:8

    As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

    Read in context
  • Psalms 71:6

    By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.

    Read in context
  • Psalms 22:9–10

    But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.

    Read in context