As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

JOB 3:6KJV
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Job 3:6 (KJV)

What does Job 3:6 mean?

Job 3:6 describes Job’s wish that the night of his birth would be overtaken by darkness and forgotten, excluded from the calendar and not counted among the regular months of the year. Job is expressing a deep desire that the day and night of his birth would be erased from memory and history.

In this verse, Job is speaking out of his intense suffering after losing his family, health, and wealth. He is not addressing anyone directly but is lamenting before his friends and God. Job’s words show how completely overwhelmed he feels, wishing that his very existence could be undone by removing the day and night he was born from all records.

The Hebrew behind Job 3:6

  • "night" (לַיְלָה, laylah): This word refers to the period of darkness, and here it is the specific night Job was born. Job singles out not just the day but the night, emphasizing his wish to erase every trace of his birth.
  • "darkness" (אֹפֶל, ophel): This word often means deep darkness or gloom. Job is not asking for ordinary night but for a kind of darkness that completely overwhelms and hides the night of his birth.
  • "seize" (לָקַח, laqach): This verb means to take or seize. Job wants darkness to actively take hold of the night, as if darkness could come and claim it so it cannot be remembered.
  • "joined" (חָדַשׁ, chadash): Here, the word means to be counted or included. Job is wishing that the night of his birth would not be included with the other days and months, as if it never existed.

Why Job 3:6 matters

  • This verse clarifies the depth of Job’s despair, showing he does not just wish for death but for his birth to be erased entirely, which is a stronger statement of anguish than simply wishing to die.
  • The language about darkness and exclusion from time highlights how Job feels cut off from the normal flow of life and blessing, which is a key theme in the book.
  • Understanding Job’s words here helps readers see the emotional and poetic intensity of biblical lament, which can often be more raw and honest than modern readers might expect.

Where else these words appear

“joined” Hebrew H2302 · used in 3 verses

  • Exodus 18:9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.
  • Psalms 21:6 For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.

“darkness” Hebrew H652 · used in 8 verses

  • Job 10:22 A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.
  • Job 28:3 He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.
  • Psalms 11:2 For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.

“months” Hebrew H3391 · used in 13 verses

  • Exodus 2:2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
  • 1 Kings 6:38 And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.
  • Job 29:2 Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

“number” Hebrew H4557 · used in 129 verses

  • Genesis 34:30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.
  • Deuteronomy 32:8 When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
  • Ezra 2:2 Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel: