Job 3:1a After It Was So - 11-3-2025 Initial Draft Podcast

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Transcript

Welcome to the InAllWisdom Podcast,
A daily podcast dedicated to wisdom for life.
I am Jim Donnelly, your host.

Today’s podcast is from Job chapter three.

After It Was So

 is the title. 

Stay tuned for this episode about wisdom for life.
 
I have completed a commentary on
The book of Ecclesiastes, all 222 verses.
My book title is:
Ecclesiastes Amplified: A Collection of Wise Words 
We have set the publication date for 2026.
 
In the meantime, I am working on 
the book of Job, 
all forty-two chapters, all 1070 verses.

My book title prompts 
a different approach to understanding
the book of Job: 

My book title is: 
Job Is A True Story–Well Written Well Spoken

Subtitled: A Trues Story About Our Mighty God - Who Has Chosen Not to Distance Himself From Human Suffering, But To Be Part Of It. 
 
Job is forty-two chapters long. A daily podcast will allow me to read through the entire book of Job every six weeks. 

I started this method of reading and commenting two days ago, on November 1, 2025.  

Each daily podcast will start with a reading from a chapter in the book of Job. 

I am taking this trek through Job 

for you and with you. 

Because most people on planet Earth have never heard the true story of Job. 

Reading a chapter a day will help them. 

It will also help many of you 

who know the book of Job 

but have never read it all. 


When you are reading along in the book of Job; 

it is often very hard to figure out who is speaking. 

And who is the target of the conversation. 

It is still harder sometimes to understand what they said.


Last. 

For each month of this podcast, I will choose a different version of the English Bible from which to read. 

This method will help all of us 

to better understand 

what has been written for us. 

Today’s podcast title is:
After It Was So 

Allow me first to read Job chapter three. It is twenty-six verses long. 

Because of the difficulty of translating and understanding the text, I have ordered this chapter in a certain way.

I have added spacing to separate what I think are appropriate dividers in this first speech of Job.

This month, November 2025, I am reading from The Legacy Standard Bible. 

The Book of Job, Chapter Three

1 Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
 
2 And Job answered and said, 

3 “Let the day perish on which I was to be born, 
And the night which said, ‘A man is conceived.’ 
4 “May that day be darkness; 
Let not God seek it from above, 
Nor light shine on it. 
5 “Let darkness and shadow of death redeem it; 
Let a cloud dwell upon it; 
Let the blackness of the day terrify it.

 
6 “As for that night, let thick darkness take 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 ready to rouse Leviathan. 
9 “Let the stars of its twilight be darkened; 
Let it hope for light but have none, 
And let it not see the breaking dawn, 


10 Because it did not shut the opening of my mother’s body, 
Or hide trouble from my eyes. 
11 “Why did I not die from the womb, 
Come forth from the womb and breathe my last? 
12 “Why did the knees receive me, 
And why the breasts, that I should suck? 


13 “For now I would have lain down and been quiet; 
I would have slept then; it would have been rest to me, 
14 With kings and with counselors of the earth, 
Who rebuilt waste places for themselves, 
15 Or with princes who had gold, 
Who were filling their houses with silver. 
16 “Or why was I not like a miscarriage hidden away, 
As infants that never saw light? 


17 “There the wicked cease from raging, 
And there the weary of strength are at rest. 
18 “The prisoners are at ease together; 
They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster. 
19 “The small and the great are there, 
And the slave is free from his master. 


20 “Why is light given to him who is troubled, 
And life to the bitter of soul, 
21 Who along for death, but there is none, 
And dig for it more than for hidden treasures, 
22 Who are glad with joy, 
And rejoice when they find the grave? 
23 “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, 
And whom God has hedged in? 


24 “For my groaning comes at the sight of my food, 
And my roaring pours out like water. 
25 “For the dread that I dread comes upon me, 
And what I am afraid of befalls me. 
26 “I am not complacent, nor am I quiet, 
And I am not at rest, and raging comes.”  Legacy Standard Bible (Job 3:1–26). (2022). Three Sixteen Publishing.

Let’s begin, today’s subject: 

After it was so, - Job 3:1a
אַחֲרֵי־כֵ֗ן
ʾaḥ⁺ȧrē kin
“Afterward” is not a word of simple transition. Rather, it calls for a pass-and-review of each event previously written by the author. 

R.L. Alden says this: “The antecedent of “this” [After this] refers to all the events of the first two chapters but in particular to the tragedies of lost wealth, lost children, and lost health …” (see Endnote).

Yohan Pyeon, writes: “First, the phrase ‘afterward’ … is often used … to introduce a transition to a new episode connects this chapter to what was previously said… Pyeon, p. 79” (we will soon see what Pyeon, continues to write “Second …”. 

“After it was so” encourages the reader to rewind all the episodes in chapters 1 and 2, and ponder each event that God willed into being; which together form the introduction to Job chapter 3.
 
The first seven occurrences of “it was so” provide clear illustrations of God’s work being done: God said and it was so” (see Genesis 1:7, 9, 11, 15, 24, and 30). 



“After it was so” are the very first words of Job 3:1. Beginning a Hebrew sentence this way occurs only here in the entire Hebrew Bible.

Overview question: Can we posit that the phrase “After it was so” with nothing preceding it, should help the reader understand that ‘Everything God had done’ was the reference point?

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their hosts. And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God created to do.” (see Genesis 2:1-3). 

I believe we can apply, “After it was so,”: “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because He rested from all His work which God created to do.”

This includes all the events in Job chapters one and two. 
 
“After it was so” gives all the glory to God, for all the works He has done.  Including the speech about to come forth from the mouth of Job. Job’s prophetic speech follows in Job 3:3-26. 

This is surely something to ponder.

Further along in this true story, we learn this about Yahweh: 

Give ear to this, O Job, Stand and carefully consider the wondrous deeds of God. 
“Do you know how God establishes them, and makes the lightning of His cloud to shine? 
“Do you know about the layers of the thick clouds, the wonders of one perfect in knowledge, (Job 37:14-16, LSB). 

God is eternal; He has no beginning or end. Before acting in time and space, God, who “is perfect in knowledge,” knew everything. 

God knew everything before He brought anything into being. 

Isn’t that how King David understood life? 

King David put his belief about life into the words of this song: 

PSALM 139
For the choir director. Of David. A Psalm. 

1 O Yahweh, You have searched me and known me. 
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; 
You understand my thought from afar. 
3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, 
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. 
4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, 
Behold, O Yahweh, You know it all. 
5 You have enclosed me behind and before, 
And You have put Your hand upon me. 
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; 
It is too high, I cannot attain to it. 
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? 
Or where can I flee from Your presence? 
8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; 
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 
9 If I lift up the wings of the dawn, 
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 
10 Even there Your hand will lead me, 
And Your right hand will lay hold of me. 
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will bruise me, 
And the light around me will be night,” 
12 Even the darkness is not too dark for You, 
And the night is as bright as the day. 
Darkness and light are alike to You. 
13 For You formed my inward parts; 
You wove me in my mother’s womb. 
14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
Wonderful are Your works, 
And my soul knows it very well. 
15 My frame was not hidden from You, 
When I was made in secret, 
And intricately woven in the depths of the earth; 
16 Your eyes have seen my unshaped substance; 
And in Your book all of them were written 
The days that were formed for me, 
When as yet there was not one of them. 
17 How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! 
How vast is the sum of them! 
18 If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. 
When I awake, I am still with You. 
19 Oh that You would slay the wicked, O God! 
O men of bloodshed, depart from me. 
20 For they speak against You wickedly, 
And Your enemies take Your name in vain. 
21 Do I not hate those who hate You, O Yahweh? 
And do I not revile those who rise up against You? 
22 I hate them with the utmost hatred; 
They have become my enemies. 
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; 
Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 
24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, 
And lead me in the everlasting way.  (Psalm 139, LSB). 

Job also arrived at the same understanding of life.

Here is what Job said at the end of this recorded true story:

1 Then Job answered Yahweh and said, 

2 “I know that You can do all things, 
And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. 

3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ 

Therefore, I have declared that which I did not understand, 
Things too marvelous for me, which I did not know. (Job 421-3, LSB). 

That is quite a filter as we seek to sift through what Job has said.

I will apply that filter to Job 3:2-26 in another podcast.

In the meantime, I encourage you to ponder these things.

We have come to the end of today’s InAllWisdom Podcast. A daily podcast dedicated to wisdom for life.



Thank you for listening!



Please join me again for another interesting episode of Wisdom for Life.



Until he comes on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory,

may

       “Yahweh bless you, and keep you;

        Yahweh make His face shine on you,

       And be gracious to you;

       Yahweh lift up His face on you,

       And give you peace.’” 

(The Book of Numbers 6:24–27, LSB).