New English Translation
Job 38:17
17Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of deepest 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
15Then from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm raised in violence is broken. 16Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea, or walked about in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of deepest darkness? 18Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know it all! 19“In what direction does light reside, and darkness, where is its place,
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 9:13when they prayed: “Have mercy on me, Lord! See how I am oppressed by those who hate me, O one who can snatch me away from the gates of death!
- Psalms 107:18They lost their appetite for all food, and they drew near the gates of death.
- Psalms 116:3The ropes of death tightened around me, the snares of Sheol confronted me. I was confronted with trouble and sorrow.
- Job 3:5Let darkness and the deepest shadow claim it; let a cloud settle on it; let whatever blackens the day terrify it!
- Job 12:22He reveals the deep things of darkness, and brings deep shadows into the light.
- Psalms 23:4Even when I must walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff reassure me.
- Psalms 107:10They sat in utter darkness, bound in painful iron chains,
- Amos 5:8(But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The Lord is his name!
- Matthew 4:16the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and on those who sit in the region and shadow of death a light has dawned.”
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
New English Translation — © 1996-2016 Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C.
Commentaries