Job 3:6-8

6 As for that night [layil], let darkness ['ophel] seize [laqach] upon it; let it not be joined [chadah] unto the days [yowm] of the year [shaneh (in pl. only),], let it not come [bow'] into the number [micpar] of the months [yerach].

7 Lo, let that night [layil] be solitary [galmuwd], let no joyful voice [rananah] come [bow'] therein.

8 Let them curse [naqab] it that curse ['arar] the day [yowm], who are ready [`athiyd] to raise up [`uwr] their mourning [livyathan]. KJV-Interlinear

6 'As for that night, let darkness seize it; Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not come into the number of the months. 7 'Behold, let that night be barren; Let no joyful shout enter it. 8 'Let those curse it who curse the day, Who are prepared to rouse Leviathan. NASB

Job has wished the day of his birth, into oblivion. Now he turns the calendar backward about nine months, and wishes for the night of his conception, out of existence.

Just to make sure that his birth had not taken place, he desires that his conception had never taken place. In fact, he desires that, that entire night had never taken place.

Job will get even more graphic in this wish. He wishes the sexual activities of his parents had never taken place. And even more graphic, he wishes that the highlight of their sex, had never occurred.

Now you have to know a little about sex and how everything works. But suffice to say, when two people get together, they eventually reach a height in their activities. Thus the shout of joy. Is that plain enough, without getting too explicit?

Job begins with his desire that that whole night had never occurred. Again, we remove a section of time from the calendar. And, since it is not in the habit of society to celebrate the annual conception event, only that one night is in view here. Job wants the entire night to drop out of existence.

Since that night cannot be lost, then Job in verse seven, wishes for the activities of that night to be cancelled. If no sex takes place, then no pregnancy can occur.

But of course sex did take place, and thus Job continues with his wish for failure in that activity.

Let's move on to verse eight. Job wishes for the night and its activities to never have occurred. That is of course an impossibility. So Job turns to the cults of his time.

In Job's day, just as in our current day, there were folks who claimed the power of the supernatural. They could call on higher powers and curse this or that.

In so doing, those enchanters would call on the supernatural, here called Leviathan, sometimes referred to as the crocodile, or serpent, or monsters of the deep. This is also a reference to great mourning or great misery, or to doom and gloom.

Now, all of these things that Job is calling for, he is doing so because he is in great pain, and has been for quite some time now. He does not believe any of them, he is just frustrated and frazzled, and more than that, he is helpless.

He is rambling through a discourse that cannot accomplish anything, but it helps him to feel a little better emotionally, even though he does not feel better, nor will it accomplish anything. If you have ever been in pain and frustrated, then hit your hand on the table or wall just to vent your frustration, then you can probably begin to understand. Job is venting, sort of.

But he is also letting us know that knowledge in his day was not so na ve. He understood the reproduction process. He understood the calendar. We know that there were false seers who would offer their services for a price to anyone who was willing to pay.

So Job even calls out rhetorically, for all those who practice in the enchanting business, those who make it their practice to curse the day, to also curse the night of his conception.

Job has now cursed the day of his birth, and the night of his conception. He isn't quite finished yet, but almost.

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