Someone could think that Job’s statement comes from desperation, but that is proven wrong by what God has said: “Do you believe I treated you like this for any other reason than to reveal your righteousness?” Job, who previously had said, “If I am wicked, woe to me,” does not contradict this assumption but reveals the bitterness of life. An evil person would not do that, for he rejoices in this [life]. Above all, Job wants to reveal to his friends the reason why he did not die at the moment of his birth, namely, because he was to be an example of energy and strength. According to a different interpretation, even the life in the flesh is indicated, about which Paul writes, “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” Job experiences the pleasant as well as the bitter sides of life; no one who has rid himself of the flesh rejoices in wealth or excess, nor is he plagued by hardship. Job has tasted this life and its pleasures, for he was blessed with many good children and was rich and healthy. But since his situation turned into its opposite, he also experienced the reverse of his previous life and acknowledged in real life the vanity of these things. This is why Job teaches us not to long for them by saying, “Why did you bring me forth from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me, and were as though I had not been.”Job expresses this in the form of a prayer, for his burdens were not light and he endured the pains not without feeling them. For it would not have been manful had he not felt his sufferings. But he teaches that he endured the pain with the help of God’s power, by praying in gratefulness. Paul also expresses this: “It was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
Job wants to find relief before he has to go from where he cannot return. Therefore, he does not pray for himself, but to teach the friends who think that those who suffer hardship are evil but those who are free from hardship are righteous. He desired that they should gain certainty regarding the divine resolutions about him. One should not assume that Job denies the resurrection of the dead. Rather, Job says, “From where I will not return to lead a mortal life.” Job knows that he will rise as immortal.
Although the brave one was in pain, he talked about the coming age. So he says—not to deny the resurrection—“Before I go from where I will not return.” Job calls the land “a land of gloom and deep darkness, where light is like darkness,” since the holy one ascribes only little to himself. For it would not have been suitable to say, “Before I am in the kingdom of the heavens and in the land of our promises, my God.” Job wants his listener to be instructed about the divine judgment. There has not yet been restitution for deeds done.
In order to avoid scandalizing many who see his life end in affliction and sadness, it is not without reason that the righteous man asks for the termination of his ordeals. That is why [Job] said, “Before I go, never to return,” evidently, to his human life, as if to say “In fact, if I return down here and receive here the reward of my toils, I will not be worn out and will not renounce the fight to the death in my ordeals. Those who are here, knowing my justice, will see that I receive my reward by coming back here. But if they see me die now in my ordeals, they will either think that Job is wicked or will believe that nothing useful comes from justice.”
Wherefore then hast Thou brought me forth out of the womb. Oh that I had been consumed, and no eye had seen me.
Which same sentiment he had already uttered in his first speech, saying, Why died I not from the womb? and whilst he subjoins that which he adds here, I should have been as though I had not been, I should have been carried from the womb to the grave; he adds in other words, but no other sense, saying, Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants which never saw light. But forasmuch as we have made out these particulars very much at length above, to avoid wearying the reader we forbear to unfold points already explained.
[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on Job 10:18-22
Job wants to find relief before he has to go from where he cannot return. Therefore, he does not pray for himself, but to teach the friends who think that those who suffer hardship are evil but those who are free from hardship are righteous. He desired that they should gain certainty regarding the divine resolutions about him. One should not assume that Job denies the resurrection of the dead. Rather, Job says, “From where I will not return to lead a mortal life.” Job knows that he will rise as immortal.
Although the brave one was in pain, he talked about the coming age. So he says—not to deny the resurrection—“Before I go from where I will not return.” Job calls the land “a land of gloom and deep darkness, where light is like darkness,” since the holy one ascribes only little to himself. For it would not have been suitable to say, “Before I am in the kingdom of the heavens and in the land of our promises, my God.” Job wants his listener to be instructed about the divine judgment. There has not yet been restitution for deeds done.