Job 3:16

American Standard Version with Strong's Numbers

Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light.

Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

א֤וֹ כְנֵ֣פֶל טָ֭מוּן לֹ֣א אֶהְיֶ֑ה כְּ֝עֹלְלִ֗ים לֹא־רָ֥אוּ אֽוֹר׃

Transliteration

ʾô kənēpel ṭāmûn lōʾ ʾehyeh kəʿōlălîm lōʾ-rāʾû ʾôr

Grammar Details

*ʾô*: conjunction - or
*kənēpel*: preposition + noun, masculine singular - like a miscarriage
*ṭāmûn*: verb, Qal passive participle, masculine singular - hidden
*lōʾ*: negative particle - not
*ʾehyeh*: verb, Qal imperfect, 1st common singular - I would be
*kəʿōlălîm*: preposition + noun, masculine plural - like infants
*lōʾ-rāʾû*: negative particle + verb, Qal perfect, 3rd common plural - they did not see
*ʾôr*: noun, masculine singular - light

Word Meanings

*nēpel*: miscarriage/stillbirth/untimely birth
*ṭāmûn*: hidden/buried/concealed
*ʾehyeh*: I would be/I would have been
*ʿōlălîm*: infants/babies/children
*rāʾû*: they saw/they experienced

ℹ️

About this Translation

American Standard Version with Strong's Numbers

Formal EquivalenceSource: American Standard VersionBest for: Word studies and original-language research

🎯 Translation Approach

A highly literal, word-for-word translation (ASV, 1901) augmented with Strong's numbering to connect English words to underlying Hebrew and Greek terms for study.

Word-for-word

5/5

Readability

2/5

💎 Distinctive Features

Integrated Strong's numbering: Links English terms to underlying Hebrew and Greek words for deeper lexical study.
Formal equivalence: Prioritizes close alignment with source-language forms and structures.
Divine name rendering: Frequently renders the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah in the Old Testament, following ASV tradition.
Study-focused formatting: Optimized for reference and research rather than casual reading.

✅ Strengths

High fidelity to original languages
Includes Strong's numbers for precise word study
Consistent lexical choices aid exegesis
Stable, longstanding scholarly text

⚠️ Considerations

Archaic language reduces readability
Older textual basis compared to some modern translations
Strong's numbers are a concordance index, not full lexical definitions

👥 Who is this for?

Ideal for

Pastors and teachers
Seminary students
Serious Bible students
Readers conducting word studies
Those referencing Hebrew/Greek tools

Consider alternatives for

Casual readers
Children and early teens
ESL learners seeking simple English
Readers preferring contemporary language

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Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

Ps 58:8 : 8 [ Let them be] as a snail which melteth and passeth away, [Like] the untimely birth of a woman, that hath not seen the sun.
Eccl 6:3 : 3 If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul be not filled with good, and moreover he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:
1 Cor 15:8 : 8 and last of all, as to the [child] untimely born, he appeared to me also.

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

Job 10:18-20
3 verses
82%
18Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me.
19I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20Are not my days few? cease then, And let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,
Job 3:9-15
7 verses
81%
9Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark: Let it look for light, but have none; Neither let it behold the eyelids of the morning:
10Because it shut not up the doors of my [mother's] womb, Nor hid trouble from mine eyes.
11Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me?
12Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should suck?
13For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest,
14With kings and counsellors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves;
15Or with princes that had gold, Who filled their houses with silver:
Job 3:3-4
2 verses
78%
3Let the day perish wherein I was born, And the night which said, There is a man-child conceived.
4Let that day be darkness; Let not God from above seek for it, Neither let the light shine upon it.
Jer 20:17-18
2 verses
77%
17because he slew me not from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.
18Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
Job 23:17
76%
17Because I was not cut off before the darkness, Neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.
Lam 3:6
75%
6He hath made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.
Ps 139:15-16
2 verses
73%
15My frame was not hidden from thee, When I was made in secret, [And] curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, [Even] the days that were ordained [for me], When as yet there was none of them.
Job 3:26
72%
26I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; But trouble cometh.
Job 29:3-4
2 verses
72%
3When his lamp shined upon my head, And by his light I walked through darkness;
4As I was in the ripeness of my days, When the friendship of God was upon my tent;
Job 14:13
72%
13Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol, That thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, That thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Job 3:17
72%
17There the wicked cease from troubling; And there the weary are at rest.
Ps 73:14-15
2 verses
72%
14For all the day long have I been plagued, And chastened every morning.
15If I had said, I will speak thus; Behold, I had dealt treacherously with the generation of thy children.
Jer 20:14
72%
14Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
Job 3:23
71%
23[ Why is light given] to a man whose way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in?
Job 31:15-16
2 verses
71%
15Did not he that made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?
16If I have withheld the poor from [their] desire, Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
Lam 3:1-2
2 verses
71%
1I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2He hath led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
Ps 51:5
71%
5Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me.
Job 17:13
71%
13If I look for Sheol as my house; If I have spread my couch in the darkness;
Ezek 16:4-5
2 verses
71%
4And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to cleanse thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
5No eye pitied thee, to do any of these things unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, for that thy person was abhorred, in the day that thou wast born.
Ps 22:9-10
2 verses
71%
9But thou art he that took me out of the womb; Thou didst make me trust [when I was] upon my mother's breasts.
10I was cast upon thee from the womb; Thou art my God since my mother bare me.
Job 7:3
71%
3So am I made to possess months of misery, And wearisome nights are appointed to me.
Job 3:20
71%
20Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, And life unto the bitter in soul;
Eccl 6:3
70%
3If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul be not filled with good, and moreover he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:
Job 29:16
70%
16I was a father to the needy: And the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.
Job 31:18
70%
18(Nay, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, And her have I guided from my mother's womb);
Prov 4:3
70%
3For I was a son unto my father, Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
Prov 8:24
70%
24When there were no depths, I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water.
Job 42:3
70%
3Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not, Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Job 10:22
70%
22The land dark as midnight, [The land] of the shadow of death, without any order, And where the light is as midnight.
Ps 143:3
70%
3For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; He hath smitten my life down to the ground: He hath made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.
Job 17:15
70%
15Where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?
Job 14:3
69%
3And dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one, And bringest me into judgment with thee?
Ps 139:12
69%
12Even the darkness hideth not from thee, But the night shineth as the day: The darkness and the light are both alike [to thee].