When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
Parallel translations
- WEB For when a few years have come, I shall go the way of no return.
- BSB For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no 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 man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
- Job 14:5Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
- Job 7:9–10As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.
- Job 14:14If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
- Eccl 12:5Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about 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.