They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
Parallel translations
- WEB Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into 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; and there the weary be at rest.
- Jonah 2:6I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
- 2 Cor 1:9But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
- Ezek 37:11Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
- Ps 88:4–8I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:
- Isa 38:17–18Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
- Job 33:18–28He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.
- Ps 143:7Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
- Job 18:13–14It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
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
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