The Meaning of Job 3:20 Explained

Job 3:20

KJV: Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;

YLT: Why giveth He to the miserable light, and life to the bitter soul?

Darby: Wherefore is light given to him that is in trouble, and life to those bitter of soul,

ASV: Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, And life unto the bitter in soul;

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Wherefore is light  given  to him that is in misery,  and life  unto the bitter  [in] soul; 

What does Job 3:20 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 3:20 mean?

Why is given to him who is in misery light and life to the bitter of soul
לָ֤מָּה יִתֵּ֣ן לְעָמֵ֣ל א֑וֹר וְ֝חַיִּ֗ים לְמָ֣רֵי נָֽפֶשׁ

לָ֤מָּה  Why 
Parse: Interrogative
Root: לָמָּה 
Sense: what, how, of what kind.
יִתֵּ֣ן  is  given 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, third person masculine singular
Root: יָתַן 
Sense: to give, put, set.
לְעָמֵ֣ל  to  him  who  is  in  misery 
Parse: Preposition-l, Noun, masculine singular
Root: עָמֵל 
Sense: labourer, sufferer, wretched one.
א֑וֹר  light 
Parse: Noun, common singular
Root: אֹור  
Sense: light.
וְ֝חַיִּ֗ים  and  life 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, masculine plural
Root: חַי 
Sense: living, alive.
לְמָ֣רֵי  to  the  bitter 
Parse: Preposition-l, Adjective, masculine plural construct
Root: מַר 
Sense: bitter, bitterness.
נָֽפֶשׁ  of  soul 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular
Root: נֶפֶשׁ  
Sense: soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion.