If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
Parallel translations
- KJV If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
- BSB If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
- NKJV If I wait for the grave as my house, If I make my bed in the darkness,
- NASB “If I hope for Sheol as my home, I make my bed in the darkness;
- NLT What if I go to the grave and make my bed in darkness?
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 contemplates Sheol, the grave, as his only home, with darkness for his bed. Death seems to be all that awaits him.
Overview
Job considers that the realm of the dead is the dwelling he can expect, his couch spread in the gloom. The somber reflection underscores how thoroughly his hope in this life has faded. Yet even this descent into the shadow of death is not beyond God's reach, for Christ has entered death itself and emerged victorious, opening hope beyond the grave.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 10:21–22before I go where I shall not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;
- Job 3:13For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,
- Job 17:1“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.
- Lam 3:25–26Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
- Job 30:23For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house appointed for all living.
- Job 14:14If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, until my release should come.
- Ps 139:8If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!
- Ps 27:14Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh.
- Isa 57:2He enters into peace. They rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness.
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 17:13 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.