God’s Word Translation
Job 38:17
17Have the gateways to death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gateways to total darkness?
Job 38:17 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
- New International Version (NIV)Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
- English Standard Version (ESV)Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
- New King James Version (NKJV)Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
Context of Job 38:17
15Wicked people are deprived of their light, and an arm raised ⌞in victory⌟ is broken. 16Have you gone to the springs in the sea or walked through the valleys of the ocean depths? Have the gateways to death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gateways to total darkness? 18Have you ⌞even⌟ considered how wide the earth is? Tell me, if you know all of this! 19“What is the way to the place where light lives? Where is the home of darkness
Read all of Job 38Job 38:17 word by word
הֲנִגְל֣וּ לְ֭ךָ שַׁעֲרֵי־מָ֑וֶת וְשַׁעֲרֵ֖י צַלְמָ֣וֶת תִּרְאֶֽה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 38:17
- Psalms 9:13Have pity on me, O Lord. Look at what I suffer because of those who hate me. You take me away from the gates of death
- Psalms 107:18All food was disgusting to them, and they came near death’s gates.
- Psalms 116:3The ropes of death became tangled around me. The horrors of the grave took hold of me. I experienced pain and agony.
- Job 3:5Let the darkness and long shadows claim it as their own. Let a dark cloud hang over it. Let the gloom terrify it.
- Job 12:22He uncovers mysteries ⌞hidden⌟ in the darkness and brings gloom into the light.
- Psalms 23:4Even though I walk through the dark valley of death, because you are with me, I fear no harm. Your rod and your staff give me courage.
- Psalms 107:10Those who lived in the dark, in death’s shadow were prisoners in misery. They were held in iron chains
- Amos 5:8God made the ⌞constellations⌟ Pleiades and Orion. He turns deep darkness into dawn. He turns day into night. He calls for water from the sea to pour it over the face of the earth. His name is the Lord.
- Matthew 4:16The people who lived in darkness have seen a bright light. A light has risen for those who live in a land overshadowed by death.”
Commentaries on Job 38:17
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 17Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? - Dost thou know in what the article of death consists? This is as inexplicable as the question, What is animal life? The doors of the shallow of death? - צלמות tsalmaveth, the intermediate state, the openings into the place of separate spirits. Here two places are distinguished: מות maveth, death, and צלמות tsalmaveth, the shadow of death. It will not do to say, death is the privation of life, for what then…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 17Have the gates of death been opened unto thee - That is, the gates of the world where death reigns; or the gates that lead to the abodes of the dead. The allusion here is to “Sheol,” or “Hades,” the dark abodes of the dead. This was supposed to be beneath the ground, and was entered by the grave, and was inclosed by gates and bars; see the notes at Job 10:21-22. The transition from the reference to the bottom of the sea to the regions of the dead was…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 12-24Verses 12-24 The Lord questions Job, to convince him of his ignorance, and shame him for his folly in prescribing to God. If we thus try ourselves, we shall soon be brought to own that what we know is nothing in comparison with what we know not. By the tender mercy of our God, the Day-spring from on high has visited us, to give light to those that sit in darkness, whose hearts are turned to it as clay to the seal, 2Co 4:6. God's way in the government of…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-41God challenges Job. Job admits he cannot judge the moral world. God shows Job's ignorance of the natural world's elements related to the realm of heaven, weather, animals, and birds (38:4–21; 22–38; 39–39:30).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1717. seen--The second clause heightens the thought in the first. Man during life does not even "see" the gates of the realm of the dead ("death," Job 10:21); much less are they "opened" to him. But those are "naked before God" (Job 26:6).Read the comment
Topics related to Job 38:17
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 38
- 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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