5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm it.
5 Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
5 May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night.
5 May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it.
5 Let the darkness and utter gloom claim that day for its own. Let a black cloud overshadow it, and let the darkness terrify it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 3:5
Commentary on Job 3:1-10
(Read Job 3:1-10)
For seven days Job's friends sat by him in silence, without offering consolidation: at the same time Satan assaulted his mind to shake his confidence, and to fill him with hard thoughts of God. The permission seems to have extended to this, as well as to torturing the body. Job was an especial type of Christ, whose inward sufferings, both in the garden and on the cross, were the most dreadful; and arose in a great degree from the assaults of Satan in that hour of darkness. These inward trials show the reason of the change that took place in Job's conduct, from entire submission to the will of God, to the impatience which appears here, and in other parts of the book. The believer, who knows that a few drops of this bitter cup are more dreadful than the sharpest outward afflictions, while he is favoured with a sweet sense of the love and presence of God, will not be surprised to find that Job proved a man of like passions with others; but will rejoice that Satan was disappointed, and could not prove him a hypocrite; for though he cursed the day of his birth, he did not curse his God. Job doubtless was afterwards ashamed of these wishes, and we may suppose what must be his judgment of them now he is in everlasting happiness.