Hunger Strike

For my groaning comes at the sight of my food, and my cries pour out like water.  Job 3:24  NASB

Groaning – Before we tackle the participle “groaning,” let’s understand the context.  The NASB translates the opening of this verse as “at the sight of my food,” but the Hebrew is perhaps more poignant.  Literally, it reads “for in the face of my bread.”  We can readily understand why the translators chose a broader interpretation, but we should not miss the fact that Job isn’t saying that the sight of food grieves him.  It’s not just seeing food.  In Job’s case, it is the simplest of bodily sustenance in his face, perhaps at the very moment he raises the piece of bread to his mouth.  It is precisely the reminder that “by the sweat of your face you will eat bread,” a foretaste of death, as the rest of the original verse suggests (Genesis 3:19).  Bread becomes the symbol of transience, of dependency, of pain.  It is no longer the nourishment that sustains life.  It is now the harbinger of the end of life.  That context provides the setting for the verb ānaḥ, “sigh, groan, gasp.”  How the verb is used in other circumstances is telling:

נַח (ānaḥ) sigh, groan, gasp.^[1]

אֲנָחָה (ʾănāḥâ) sighing, groaning.^[2]

This verb is not the most frequently used in the ot for the act of mourning. sāpad and ʾābal refer more to public acts of mourning and wailing as at a funeral. bākâ refers to weeping in any sorrow as does ʾānaḥ. So important was the duty of funerary mourning that its omission was a serious misfortune ( I Kgs 14:13 sāpad). Those who were immediately involved in the mourning were the members of the deceased’s family (Gen 50:10 sāpad). Apart from funerals, public mourning was connected with repentance (Ex 33:4 ʾābal; Joel 1:13 sāpad; 2:12–13 mispēd).^[3]

ʾănāḥâ). Sighing, sigh, groaning. (KJV, ASV, RSV similar, “sighing.”) This noun refers to groaning in either physical or mental distress. It occurs eleven times in the ot, only in the poetic (six times in Ps and Job) and prophetic books (three in Isa, one in Jer, and one in Lam).^[4]

Now we understand that Job’s “groaning” is a reminder of a funeral.  His reaction of bread is counterintuitive.  We think of bread as life-giving.  He experiences bread as a useless and ineffective omen.  What good is eating when all you want to do is die!  This insight helps us identify with the depth of tragedy in Job’s circumstances.  It should also help us understand the temporal context of Job as an answer to the people in Captivity.  What should have been a blessing has become a curse just as God’s choice of a people appears to be rejection.

Topical Index: ʾănāḥâ, groaning, bread, death, Job 3:24

^[1] Feinberg, C. L. (1999). 127 ָנַח. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 57). Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid.

^[4] Ibid.