Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”
Parallel translations
- KJV They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
- BSB Will it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”
- NKJV Will they go down to the gates of Sheol? Shall we have rest together in the dust?”
- NASB “Will it go down with me to Sheol? Shall we together go down into the dust?”
- NLT No, my hope will go down with me to the grave. We will rest together in the dust!”
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 wonders whether his hope will simply descend with him into the dust of death. He sees his hope sinking into the grave.
Overview
Job concludes his speech asking if his hope will go down to the gates of Sheol and rest with him in the dust. The question expresses the seeming finality of death over all his expectations. The book leaves this longing unsatisfied here, pointing forward to the resurrection in which Christ swallows up death and secures a hope that the grave cannot hold.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 3:17–19There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.
- Jonah 2:6I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God.
- 2 Cor 1:9Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,
- Ezek 37:11Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.
- Ps 88:4–8I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no help,
- Isa 38:17–18Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
- Job 33:18–28He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.
- Ps 143:7Hurry to answer me, Yahweh. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, so that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit.
- Job 18:13–14The members of his body shall be devoured. The firstborn of death shall devour his members.
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 17:16 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.