To what is Job referring?

[Pastor_Bob]

Job 3:11 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,
14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;
15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. (KJV)

According to Strong's, the Hebrew word here translated as "untimely birth" means, "something fallen, i.e. an abortion."

This word occurs twice more in the Old Testament:
Psalm 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.

Ecc 6:3 If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.

I, personally, cannot see Job, David, or Solomon referring to an abortion...at least not a pre-meditated abortion.

Any thoughts?

 

[Winman]

Job 3:11 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,
14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;
15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. (KJV)

According to Strong's, the Hebrew word here translated as "untimely birth" means, "something fallen, i.e. an abortion."

This word occurs twice more in the Old Testament:
Psalm 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.

Ecc 6:3 If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.

I, personally, cannot see Job, David, or Solomon referring to an abortion...at least not a pre-meditated abortion.

Any thoughts?

I think this is speaking of a miscarriage, or premature birth, not abortion. My older brother was born two months early and had to spend weeks in an incubator. Many premature babies did not survive at that time, but today medicine is able to save most premature babies.

 

[Pastor_Bob]

I think this is speaking of a miscarriage, or premature birth, not abortion. My older brother was born two months early and had to spend weeks in an incubator. Many premature babies did not survive at that time, but today medicine is able to save most premature babies.

I would not disagree with your position here. In fact, that is the direction in which I am leaning. Job's word "...hidden untimely birth..." really made me wonder what he was actually talking about.

 

[annsni]

It's definitely sounding like a miscarriage or premature birth to me. I'd certainly not read it as a man-induced abortion.

 

[Steven2006]

NASB- "miscarriage"

NKJV- "stillborn"

 

[dwmoeller1]

Abortion can simply mean the spontaneous expulsion of the fetus in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy (vs. miscarriage which occurs between the 12th and 28th).

 

[menageriekeeper]

I suspect that "untimely" can be interpreted by all the instances where the the phrase "concieved and bare" is used. What happens if you only concieve and don't "bare"? An untimely birth.

 

[Pastor_Bob]

"Untimely" could also refer to "happening before the usual time." It almost implies an "unexpected" birth. Job seems to reference a premature birth and death in verse eleven:
Job 3:11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? (KJV)

Again, I am not trying to base a doctrine on this passage, nor am I being dogmatic about to what it may or may not be referring. I just found it thought-provoking this morning as I read my Bible.

 

[Pastor_Bob]

Interestingly, Young's Literal Translation reads as follows:
Job 3:16 (Or as a hidden abortion I am not, As infants--they have not seen light.)

 

[RAdam]

I agree with the idea of a premature birth. Interestingly, the same concept is spoken of by Paul in 1 Cor. 15. There the word literally means abortive, but the concept is clearly one not born late but early.

 

[Deacon]

In medical terminology a simple miscarriage is often called a spontaneous abortion.

But the word "hidden" intrigued me.

The NLT gives a good literal rendition of the phrase.
“Why wasn’t I buried like a stillborn child,”

And the NAS “ …like a miscarriage which is discarded,” conveys the meaning well.

The word for "hidden" is connected to "bury" (e.g. Gen 35:4; Ex 2:12; Josh 7:21–22; II Kgs 7:8). "He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand." Exodus 2:12 (ESV)

Rob