New International Version
Job 3:18
18Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout.
Job 3:18 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
- English Standard Version (ESV)There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
- New King James Version (NKJV)There the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
- New Living Translation (NLT)Even captives are at ease in death, with no guards to curse them.
Context of Job 3:18
16Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day? 17There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest. Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout. 19The small and the great are there, and the slaves are freed from their owners. 20“Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul,
Read all of Job 3Job 3:18 word by word
יַ֭חַד אֲסִירִ֣ים שַׁאֲנָ֑נוּ לֹ֥א שָׁ֝מְע֗וּ ק֣וֹל נֹגֵֽשׂ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 3:18
- Job 39:7It laughs at the commotion in the town; it does not hear a driver’s shout.
- Exodus 5:6That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people:
- Judges 4:3Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.
- Isaiah 14:3On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you,
Commentaries on Job 3:18
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 18The prisoners rest together - Those who were slaves, feeling all the troubles, and scarcely tasting any of the pleasures of life, are quiet in the grave together; and the voice of the oppressor, the hard, unrelenting task-master, which was more terrible than death, is heard no more. They are free from his exactions, and his mouth is silent in the dust. This may be a reference to the Egyptian bondage. The children of Israel cried by reason of their…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 18There the prisoners rest together - Herder translates this, “There the prisoners rejoice in their freedom.” The Septuagint strangely enough, “There they of old ( ̔ ̓́ hoi aiōnioi ) assembled together ( ̔́ homothumadon ) have not heard the voice of the exactor.” The Hebrew word שׁאן shâ'an means “to rest, to be quiet, to be tranquil”; and the sense is, that they are in the grave freed from chains and oppressions. They hear not the voice of the oppressor…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 11-19Verses 11-19 Job complained of those present at his birth, for their tender attention to him. No creature comes into the world so helpless as man. God's power and providence upheld our frail lives, and his pity and patience spared our forfeited lives. Natural affection is put into parents' hearts by God. To desire to die that we may be with Christ, that we may be free from sin, is the effect and evidence of grace; but to desire to die, only that we may be…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 11-24Job's language shifts from wishing he was never born to grief. He goes from hating life towards an attraction for death. Job asks "why" seven times, as he has grief for his situation (3:11, 12, 16, 20, 23; see Psalms 10:1; 22:1; Jeremiah 20:18; Lamentations 5:20).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1818. There the prisoners rest--from their chains.Read the comment
Topics related to Job 3:18
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 3
- 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 International Version — © NIV® 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 Biblica
Commentaries