For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.
Parallel translations
- WEB For when a few years have come, I shall go the way of no return.
- KJV When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
- NKJV For when a few years are finished, I shall go the way of no return.
- NASB “For when a few years are past, I shall go the way of no return.
- NLT For soon I must go down that road from which I will never return.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job senses his life is almost over, soon to take the path of no return. He speaks under the shadow of death.
Overview
Job laments that only a few years, if that, remain before he goes the way from which none come back. The nearness of death sharpens his cry for vindication while he still lives. This sober awareness of mortality drives the sufferer to seek hope beyond the grave, a hope the gospel secures in Christ, who has conquered death (2 Timothy 1:10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Job 14:10But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
- Job 14:5Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with You, and since You have set limits that he cannot exceed,
- Job 7:9–10As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.
- Job 14:14When a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, until my renewal comes.
- Eccl 12:5when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels—for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 16:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.