Below the Radar

Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed ^[a]the day of his birth.  Job 3:1  NASB

Cursed – As you recall, two other actors in this drama have cursed others.  haśśāṭān first suggested that Job would “curse” God if he experienced great tragedy.  The word there was the sarcastic use of bārak.  Job’s wife employed the same term when she followed the sarcasm of haśśāṭān (2:9).  But here Job uses a different verb—qālal. We must also note that the verb tense is different.  It is a vav-consecutive, imperfect.  That means the verb is literally a future tense, converted to past tense by the prefixed vav but an imperfect—an unfinished action.  Consider for a moment this unusual oxymoron.  Job reflects on this condition, wishing that his birth ha never occurred.  But how can such a thing be an unfinished act.  He was born.  He lives.  Furthermore, his desire that his birth had not happened certainly assumes that it did.  It seems entirely finished.  This much is obvious.  But the grammar carries another subtlety.  Job’s birth initiates a life that is not complete.  We think of birth as a finished beginning, but the Hebrew world thinks of birth in relation of the whole of a life.  Not finished until the end.  All of which explains the imperfect and the future-past reversal.

Now let’s look at the meaning of the word.  qālal is literally “the quality of ‘slightness’ as to provision, speed (where it means swift), or circumstance. In the latter instance the condition described is less than that deserved by or divinely intended for the object. So, this root is used (especially in the intensive stems) of intending a lowered position, technically, to curse.”^[1]  Coppes offers a telling example:

The primary meaning “to be light or slight,” applied to individuals, is used of Hagar’s esteem for Sarah (Gen 16:4–5). Sarah was not lowered in position. As a barren women, however, she was “lowered” in function and prestige.^[2]

Does Job actually curse the day of this birth?  Or does he wish it had not raised interest in his character and status?  If he were born one of the masses, if he had not experienced God’s favor, then all these things would not have happened.  It isn’t the birth that’s the problem.  It’s the life that resulted from that birth—a life that stood out from the rest of humanity.  Job’s declaration is the equivalent of saying, “I wish God had never favored me for that is why I have been targeted.”

Aren’t we much the same?  How many times have we thought that our tragedies are the result of being noticed by divine forces?  How many times have we wished (perhaps) that we wouldn’t have experienced so much previous favor because now it seems that the balance scales require an equal amount of suffering?  But life doesn’t work that way, does it? Sometimes the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer.  This must have been the question of all those who experienced the Captivity.  Did they think God was balancing the scales, or did they struggle with the idea that even the righteous are not immune?

Topical Index: qālal, curse, make light, birth, Job 3:1

^[1] Coppes, L. J. (1999). 2028 קָלַל. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 800). Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.