The Meaning of Job 3:8 Explained

Job 3:8

KJV: Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.

YLT: Let the cursers of day mark it, Who are ready to wake up Leviathan.

Darby: Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to rouse Leviathan;

ASV: Let them curse it that curse the day, Who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Let them curse  it that curse  the day,  who are ready  to raise up  their mourning. 

What does Job 3:8 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 3:1-26 - Is Life Worth Living?
In the closing paragraphs of the previous chapter three friends arrive. Teman is Edom; for Shuah see Genesis 25:2; Naamah is Arabia. The group of spectators, gathered round Job's mound, reverently make way for them.
Job opens his mouth in a curse. But it was not, as Satan had expected, against God. The Hebrew word is different from that used in Job 2:9. He does not curse God, but the day of his birth, and asks that his stripped and suffering existence may be brought to as speedy an end as possible. Job's words are very profitable for all whose way is hid. Is the joy of life fled? Yet its duties remain. Continue in these and the path will lead back to light.
This opening elegy consists of two parts: the first, Job 3:1-10, calls on darkness to blot out the day which witnessed the beginning of so sad a life; the second, Job 3:11-26, inquires why, if he were doomed to be born, the luxury of instant death had not been also granted. Oh, human heart, of what sore anguish art thou not capable! [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 3

1  Job curses the day and services of his birth
13  The ease of death
20  He complains of life, because of his anguish

What do the individual words in Job 3:8 mean?

May those curse it who curse the day Those who are ready to rouse Leviathan
יִקְּבֻ֥הוּ אֹרְרֵי־ י֑וֹם הָ֝עֲתִידִ֗ים עֹרֵ֥ר לִוְיָתָֽן

יִקְּבֻ֥הוּ  May  those  curse  it 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, third person masculine plural, third person masculine singular
Root: נָקַב 
Sense: to pierce, perforate, bore, appoint.
אֹרְרֵי־  who  curse 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Participle, masculine plural construct
Root: אָרַר  
Sense: to curse.
י֑וֹם  the  day 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: יׄום 
Sense: day, time, year.
הָ֝עֲתִידִ֗ים  Those  who  are  ready 
Parse: Article, Adjective, masculine plural
Root: עָתִיד  
Sense: ready, prepared.
עֹרֵ֥ר  to  rouse 
Parse: Verb, Piel, Infinitive construct
Root: עוּר 
Sense: to rouse oneself, awake, awaken, incite.
לִוְיָתָֽן  Leviathan 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: לִוְיָתָן  
Sense: leviathan, sea monster, dragon.