Let Me Go

“Why is light given to one burdened with grief, and life to the bitter of soul, who ^[i]long for death, but there is none, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures; who are filled with jubilation, and rejoice when they find the grave?  Job 3:20-22  NASB

Burdened with grief – Job might have more in mind than the emotional consequences of his misfortune.  That he has in mind, for sure, but the Hebrew ʿāmēl, translated here as “grief,” has a much broader range.  Allen comments:

The verb ʿāmal is one of several Hebrew verbs for “labor, work, toil.” Other major terms include ʿābad “to work, serve,” and ʿāśâ “to make, do, work” (both of which see). ʿāmal is used less often than those two verbs, and is employed often with the nuance of the drudgery of toil rather than the nobility of labor. Hebrew ʿāmal is cognate to Arabic ʿamila “to labor,” and to the Akkadian noun nīmēlu, that produced by work, “gain, possessions.”

The root ʿāmal relates to the dark side of labor, the grievous and unfulfilling aspect of work.^[1]

The root in its several forms is used especially by Solomon in Eccl as he details the frustration, profitlessness, and transitory (hebel) benefits of day-by-day labor; such is noted when that labor is not seen as service (even worship!) to God, but simply as work done “under the sun.” For the man whose relationship to God is tenuous, there is no profit (yitrôn) from all his work (Eccl 1:3). Yet even in Ecclesiastes there are glimpses of a higher view of labor: “every one who eats and drinks and sees good in all his labor—it is the gift of God” (Eccl 3:13; cf. 5:18–19 [H 17–18]).^[2]

ʿāmēl, the form of the word used in this verse in Job, as also associated with “laborer, misery, wicked, workmen. This noun is used of workmen (e.g. Prov 16:26) and of misery (e.g. Job 3:20). ‘Misery’ is preferable to ‘wicked’ (so KJV) in Job 20:22.”^[3]  So, Job’s complaint is not just the burden of being born but rather the continuing frustration of living, the daily challenge of the unimportant necessities that rob us of truly purposeful actions, and, of course, emotional misery. Perhaps we should translate this as “burdened with misery” rather than “grief,” since grief usually implies personal loss while Job is commenting on the very existence of human life.  His use of  ʿāmēl reflects the divinely-orchestrated ubiquity of life after Genesis 3:

            Cursed be the soil for your sake, with pangs shall you eat from it all the days of your life.

            Thorn and thistle shall it sprout for you and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the

            Sweat of your brow shall you eat bread till you return to the soil for from there were you

            Taken, for dust you are and to dust you shall return.  (Robert Alter translation)

Perhaps we don’t meditate often enough on this fundamental fact of life.  The Genesis statement doesn’t provide some kind of hope in the bye-and-bye.  It portrays the stark reality of life’s termination and constant frustration.  Blood, sweat, and tears are the human legacy.  So ask yourself, “If there’s nothing after the grave, would I feel any differently than Job?”

Topical Index: ʿāmēl, grief, misery, Genesis 3:17-19, Job 3:20-22

^[1] Allen, R. B. (1999). 1639 עָמָל. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 675). Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid.