Job 10:18-19

18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth [yatsa'] out of the womb [rechem]? Oh that I had given up the ghost [gava`], and no eye [`ayin] had seen [ra'ah] me!

19 I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried [yabal] from the womb [beten] to the grave [qeber]. KJV-Interlinear

18 ' Why then hast Thou brought me out of the womb? Would that I had died and no eye had seen me! 19 'I should have been as though I had not been, Carried from womb to tomb.' NASB

Job revisits his original complaint of either dying at birth, or not having come into existence in the first place.

Human life begins outside of the womb. Here 'brought forth,' 'yatsa,' means 'out from.' Having given up the ghost is a phrase meaning having died. One cannot die unless one has first become alive.

Job again wishes, because he is under great strain from his suffering, that he had died at birth. That he would not have lived a life such as he has lived, with emphasis on his current suffering. If he had never lived past birth, then no one would be looking at him in suffering.

People can be cruel. When someone has a difficult time in life, for whatever reason, word gets around. People look at you. Gossip flares round about. The whispering never seems to end, the cruelty, the judging, the attitudes never end. You might as well be covered with some form of leprosy.

If perhaps one could turn back the clock and die at birth, then none of the embarrassment of suffering would ever occur.

Or perhaps, if prior to birth, as an embryo, or as a fetus, or somewhere in between, something would cause a miscarriage, or an abortion. Then, existence would not matter, because life would never come to be. The biological blob would simply be discharged, and the mess would be discarded as with other garbage or waste.

From womb to grave, 'qeber,' is a reference to the place where garbage, or rather disgusting garbage is buried. This is the place where slaughtered remains are discarded. This is the place where the female monthly menstrual cycle waste is discarded.

From womb to grave, bypasses life. There is no formal birth in the usual sense, and therefore no life. If no life then no existence, and if no existence then no suffering, no death, and no physical, or emotional, or social problems to deal with.

In either case, Job just wants out of his misery.

But we passed by Jobs question. 'Why was he born anyway?' 'Why were any of us born for that matter?'

Look at the odds which are stacked up against us even before we make it into this world. That was the subject of what we have been studying.

We are born imperfect humans. We are subject to sins. We have ingrained within our total fabric the curse of sin and death. We cannot possibly find our way out of sin and death. We have limitations galore. The world is like a lion holding us hostage as he conveniently feeds on us, enjoying our terror and pain. Life comes at us like an army attacking in endless waves.

The wicked of the world seem always to have an edge. In fact the wicked have control over the world at the expense of those who try to be good.

We can't wash ourselves clean. We can't scrub ourselves clean. We can do nothing in this life, to make ourselves pleasing to God.

Job, who knows the answer to his question, asks the question that all people, when they meet suffering smack in the face, sooner or later ask. 'Why?

Now is the time to post a prayer.