The Meaning of Job 3:13 Explained

Job 3:13

KJV: For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

YLT: For now, I have lain down, and am quiet, I have slept -- then there is rest to me,

Darby: For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

ASV: For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest,

KJV Reverse Interlinear

For now should I have lain still  and been quiet,  I should have slept:  then had I been at rest, 

What does Job 3:13 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 3:1-26 - Is Life Worth Living?
In the closing paragraphs of the previous chapter three friends arrive. Teman is Edom; for Shuah see Genesis 25:2; Naamah is Arabia. The group of spectators, gathered round Job's mound, reverently make way for them.
Job opens his mouth in a curse. But it was not, as Satan had expected, against God. The Hebrew word is different from that used in Job 2:9. He does not curse God, but the day of his birth, and asks that his stripped and suffering existence may be brought to as speedy an end as possible. Job's words are very profitable for all whose way is hid. Is the joy of life fled? Yet its duties remain. Continue in these and the path will lead back to light.
This opening elegy consists of two parts: the first, Job 3:1-10, calls on darkness to blot out the day which witnessed the beginning of so sad a life; the second, Job 3:11-26, inquires why, if he were doomed to be born, the luxury of instant death had not been also granted. Oh, human heart, of what sore anguish art thou not capable! [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 3

1  Job curses the day and services of his birth
13  The ease of death
20  He complains of life, because of his anguish

What do the individual words in Job 3:13 mean?

for now I would have lain still and been quiet I would have been asleep then would have been at rest I
כִּֽי־ עַ֭תָּה שָׁכַ֣בְתִּי וְאֶשְׁק֑וֹט יָ֝שַׁ֗נְתִּי אָ֤ז ׀ יָנ֬וּחַֽ לִֽי

עַ֭תָּה  now 
Parse: Adverb
Root: עַתָּה  
Sense: now.
שָׁכַ֣בְתִּי  I  would  have  lain  still 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, first person common singular
Root: שָׁכַב  
Sense: to lie down.
וְאֶשְׁק֑וֹט  and  been  quiet 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Conjunctive imperfect, first person common singular
Root: שָׁקַט  
Sense: to be quiet, be tranquil, be at peace, be quiet, rest, lie still, be undisturbed.
יָ֝שַׁ֗נְתִּי  I  would  have  been  asleep 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, first person common singular
Root: יָשֵׁן 
Sense: to sleep, be asleep.
יָנ֬וּחַֽ  would  have  been  at  rest 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, third person masculine singular
Root: נוּחַ 
Sense: to rest.