“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.
Parallel translations
- WEB “My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.
- KJV My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
- NKJV “My spirit is broken, My days are extinguished, The grave is ready for me.
- NASB “My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished, The grave is ready for me.
- NLT “My spirit is crushed, and my life is nearly snuffed out. The grave is ready to receive me.
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 feels his spirit broken, his days spent, and the grave waiting for him. He stands at the edge of despair and death.
Overview
Job describes himself as crushed in spirit, his life ebbing away, the tomb ready to receive him. The language conveys utter exhaustion and the sense that death is imminent. Such honest expression of being at the end of oneself is not faithless; it casts the sufferer wholly on God, who alone has power over the grave.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Isa 38:10–14I said, “In the prime of my life I must go through the gates of Sheol and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”
- Ps 88:3–5For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
- Job 6:11What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What is my future, that I should be patient?
- Job 42:16After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.
- Job 19:17My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own family.
- Job 17:13–14If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
- Isa 57:16For I will not accuse you forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit of man would grow weak before Me, with the breath of those I have made.
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 17:1 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.