New Living Translation
Job 17:14
14What if I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
Job 17:14 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
- New International Version (NIV)if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’
- English Standard Version (ESV)if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother,' or 'My sister,'
- New King James Version (NKJV)If I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ And to the worm, ‘You are my mother and my sister,’
Context of Job 17:14
12These men say that night is day; they claim that the darkness is light. 13What if I go to the grave and make my bed in darkness? What if I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister? 15Where then is my hope? Can anyone find it? 16No, my hope will go down with me to the grave. We will rest together in the dust!”
Read all of Job 17Job 17:14 word by word
לַשַּׁ֣חַת קָ֭רָאתִי אָ֣בִי אָ֑תָּה אִמִּ֥י וַ֝אֲחֹתִ֗י לָֽרִמָּֽה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 17:14
- Job 21:32When they are carried to the grave, an honor guard keeps watch at their tomb.
- Psalms 16:10For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.
- Psalms 49:9to live forever and never see the grave.
- Acts 2:27For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.
- Acts 13:34For God had promised to raise him from the dead, not leaving him to rot in the grave. He said, ‘I will give you the sacred blessings I promised to David.’
- 1 Corinthians 15:42It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever.
- Job 19:26And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God!
- Job 24:20Their own mothers will forget them. Maggots will find them sweet to eat. No one will remember them. Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm.
- Isaiah 14:11Your might and power were buried with you. The sound of the harp in your palace has ceased. Now maggots are your sheet, and worms your blanket.’
Commentaries on Job 17:14
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 14I have said to corruption - I came from a corrupted stock, and I must go to corruption again. The Hebrew might be thus rendered: To the ditch I have called, Thou art my father. To the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. I am in the nearest state of affinity to dissolution and corruption: I may well call them my nearest relations, as I shall soon be blended with them.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 14I have said - Margin, cried, or called. The sense is, “I say,” or “I thus address the grave.” To corruption - The word used here (שׁחת shachath ) means properly a pit, or pit-fall, Psalm 7:15; Psalm 9:15; a cistern, or a ditch, Job 9:31; or the sepulchre, or grave, Psalm 30:9; Job 33:18, Job 33:30. The Septuagint renders it here by ́ thanaton - death. Jerome (Vulgate), putredini dixi. According to Gesenius (Lex), the word never has the sense of…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. 14my father … mother … sister: This sad imitation of a family gathering in a cemetery shows how Job imagined his coming death.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1414. Thou art my father, &c.--expressing most intimate connection (Pr 7:4). His diseased state made him closely akin to the grave and worm.Read the comment
Topics related to Job 17:14
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
New Living Translation — © 1996, 2004, 2015 Tyndale House Foundation
Commentaries