English Standard Version
Job 17:16
16Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?"
Job 17:16 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
- New International Version (NIV)Will it go down to the gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?”
- New King James Version (NKJV)Will they go down to the gates of Sheol? Shall we have rest together in the dust?”
- New Living Translation (NLT)No, my hope will go down with me to the grave. We will rest together in the dust!”
Context of Job 17:16
14if 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? Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?"
Read all of Job 17Job 17:16 word by word
בַּדֵּ֣י שְׁאֹ֣ל תֵּרַ֑דְנָה אִם־יַ֖חַד עַל־עָפָ֣ר נָֽחַת׃ סRead the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 17:16
- Job 18:13It consumes the parts of his skin; the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
- Job 33:18he keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.
- Psalms 88:4I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength,
- Psalms 143:7Answer me quickly, O Lord! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit.
- Isaiah 38:17Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
- Jonah 2:6at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
- Job 3:17There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.
- Ezekiel 37:11Then he said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.'
- 2 Corinthians 1:9Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
Commentaries on Job 17:16
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 16They shall go down to the bars of the pit - All that I have must descend into the depths of the grave. Thither are we all going; and there alone can I rest. בדי baddey, which we translate bars, signifies also branches, distended limbs, or claws, and may here refer either to a personification of the grave, a monster who seizes on human bodies, and keeps them fast in his deadly gripe; or to the different branching-off-alleys in subterranean cemeteries, or…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 16They shall go down - That is, my hopes shall go down. All the expectations that I have cherished of life and happiness, will descend there with me. We have a similar expression when we say, that a man “has buried his hopes in the grave,” when he loses an only son. To the bars of the pit - “Bars of Sheol” - שׁאול בד bad she'ôl Vulgate, “Profoundest deep.” Septuagint, ̓ ̔́ͅ eis hadēn - to Hades. Sheol, or Hades, was supposed to be under the earth. Its…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. 16the gates of Sheol: Sheol is the place where dead people reside. Ancient people thought it had a gate with bars that allowed no escape.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1616. They--namely, my hopes shall be buried with me. bars--(Is 38:10). Rather, the wastes or solitudes of the pit (sheol, the unseen world). rest together--the rest of me and my hope is in, &c. Both expire together. The word "rest" implies that man's ceaseless hopes only rob him of rest.Read the comment
Topics related to Job 17:16
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