The Meaning of Job 3:21 Explained

Job 3:21

KJV: Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;

YLT: Who are waiting for death, and it is not, And they seek it above hid treasures.

Darby: Who long for death, and it cometh not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;

ASV: Who long for death, but it cometh not, And dig for it more than for hid treasures;

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Which long  for death,  but it [cometh] not; and dig  for it more than for hid treasures; 

What does Job 3:21 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 3:21 mean?

who long for death but it does not [come] and search for it more than hidden treasures
הַֽמְחַכִּ֣ים לַמָּ֣וֶת וְאֵינֶ֑נּוּ וַֽ֝יַּחְפְּרֻ֗הוּ מִמַּטְמוֹנִֽים

הַֽמְחַכִּ֣ים  who  long 
Parse: Article, Verb, Piel, Participle, masculine plural
Root: חָכָה  
Sense: to wait, wait for, await.
לַמָּ֣וֶת  for  death 
Parse: Preposition-l, Article, Noun, masculine singular
Root: מָוֶת  
Sense: death, dying, Death (personified), realm of the dead.
וְאֵינֶ֑נּוּ  but  it  does  not  [come] 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Adverb, third person masculine singular
Root: אַיִן 
Sense: nothing, not, nought n.
וַֽ֝יַּחְפְּרֻ֗הוּ  and  search  for  it 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Consecutive imperfect, third person masculine plural, third person masculine singular
Root: חָפַר  
Sense: to dig, search for.
מִמַּטְמוֹנִֽים  more  than  hidden  treasures 
Parse: Preposition-m, Noun, masculine plural
Root: מַטְמֹון  
Sense: hidden treasure, treasure.