God’s Word Translation
Job 17:16
16Will hope go down with me to the gates of the grave? Will my hope rest with me in 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?”
- English Standard Version (ESV)Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall 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?”
Context of Job 17:16
14if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘You are my mother and sister,’ 15then where is my hope? Can you see any hope left in me? Will hope go down with me to the gates of the grave? Will my hope rest with me in 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 18:13His skin is eaten away by disease. Death’s firstborn son eats away at the limbs of his body.
- Job 33:18He keeps their souls from the pit and their lives from crossing the River ⌞of Death⌟.
- Psalms 88:4I am numbered with those who go into the pit. I am like a man without any strength—
- Psalms 143:7Answer me quickly, O Lord. My spirit is worn out. Do not hide your face from me, or I will be like those who go into the pit.
- Isaiah 38:17Now my bitter experience turns into peace. You have saved me and kept me from the rotting pit. You have thrown all my sins behind you.
- Jonah 2:6I sank to the foot of the mountains. I sank to the bottom, where bars held me forever. But you brought me back from the pit, O Lord, my God.
- Job 3:17There the wicked stop their raging. There the weary are able to rest.
- Ezekiel 37:11The Lord also said to me, “Son of man, all the people of Israel are like these bones. The people say, ‘Our bones are dry, and our hope has vanished. We are completely destroyed.’
- 2 Corinthians 1:9In fact, we still feel as if we’re under a death sentence. But we suffered so that we would stop trusting ourselves and learn to trust God, who brings the dead back to life.
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
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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