English Standard Version
Job 17:14
14if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother,' or 'My sister,'
Job 17:14 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
- New International Version (NIV)if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’
- New King James Version (NKJV)If I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ And to the worm, ‘You are my mother and my sister,’
- New Living Translation (NLT)What if I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
Context of Job 17:14
12They make night into day: 'The light,' they say, 'is near to the darkness.' 13If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness, if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother,' or 'My sister,' 15where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? 16Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?"
Read all of Job 17Job 17:14 word by word
לַשַּׁ֣חַת קָ֭רָאתִי אָ֣בִי אָ֑תָּה אִמִּ֥י וַ֝אֲחֹתִ֗י לָֽרִמָּֽה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 17:14
- Job 21:32When he is carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.
- Psalms 16:10For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
- Psalms 49:9that he should live on forever and never see the pit.
- Acts 2:27For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.
- Acts 13:34And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, "'I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.'
- 1 Corinthians 15:42So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.
- Job 19:26And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
- Job 24:20The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are no longer remembered, so wickedness is broken like a tree.'
- Isaiah 14:11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers.
Commentaries on Job 17:14
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 14I have said to corruption - I came from a corrupted stock, and I must go to corruption again. The Hebrew might be thus rendered: To the ditch I have called, Thou art my father. To the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. I am in the nearest state of affinity to dissolution and corruption: I may well call them my nearest relations, as I shall soon be blended with them.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 14I have said - Margin, cried, or called. The sense is, “I say,” or “I thus address the grave.” To corruption - The word used here (שׁחת shachath ) means properly a pit, or pit-fall, Psalm 7:15; Psalm 9:15; a cistern, or a ditch, Job 9:31; or the sepulchre, or grave, Psalm 30:9; Job 33:18, Job 33:30. The Septuagint renders it here by ́ thanaton - death. Jerome (Vulgate), putredini dixi. According to Gesenius (Lex), the word never has the sense of…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 10-16Verses 10-16 Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hope of his return to a prosperous estate; he here shows that those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted, who fetch their comforts from the possibility of recovery in this world. It is our wisdom to comfort ourselves, and others, in distress, with that which will not fail; the promise of God, his love and grace, and a well-grounded hope of eternal life. See how Job…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 14my father … mother … sister: This sad imitation of a family gathering in a cemetery shows how Job imagined his coming death.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1414. Thou art my father, &c.--expressing most intimate connection (Pr 7:4). His diseased state made him closely akin to the grave and worm.Read the comment
Topics related to Job 17:14
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 17
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries