The Meaning of Job 3:24 Explained

Job 3:24

KJV: For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.

YLT: For before my food, my sighing cometh, And poured out as waters are my roarings.

Darby: For my sighing cometh before my bread, and my groanings are poured out like the waters.

ASV: For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my groanings are poured out like water.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

For my sighing  cometh  before  I eat,  and my roarings  are poured out  like the waters. 

What does Job 3:24 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 3:24 mean?

For before I eat my sighing comes and pour out like water my groanings
כִּֽי־ לִפְנֵ֣י לַ֭חְמִי אַנְחָתִ֣י תָבֹ֑א וַֽיִּתְּכ֥וּ כַ֝מַּ֗יִם שַׁאֲגֹתָֽי

לִפְנֵ֣י  before 
Parse: Preposition-l, Noun, common plural construct
Root: לִפְנֵי 
Sense: face.
לַ֭חְמִי  I  eat 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular construct, first person common singular
Root: לֶחֶם  
Sense: bread, food, grain.
אַנְחָתִ֣י  my  sighing 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular construct, first person common singular
Root: אֲנָחָה  
Sense: sighing, groaning (expression of grief or physical distress).
תָבֹ֑א  comes 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, third person feminine singular
Root: בֹּוא 
Sense: to go in, enter, come, go, come in.
וַֽיִּתְּכ֥וּ  and  pour  out 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Consecutive imperfect, third person masculine plural
Root: נָתַךְ  
Sense: to pour out or forth, drop (or rain), be poured, be poured out, be melted, be molten.
כַ֝מַּ֗יִם  like  water 
Parse: Preposition-k, Article, Noun, masculine plural
Root: מַיִם  
Sense: water, waters.
שַׁאֲגֹתָֽי  my  groanings 
Parse: Noun, feminine plural construct, first person common singular
Root: שְׁאָגָה  
Sense: roaring.