For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest
Parallel translations
- WEB For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,
- KJV For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
- NKJV For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest
- NASB “For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then, I would have been at rest,
- NLT Had I died at birth, I would now be at peace. I would be asleep and at rest.
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 imagines the rest he would have had in death. He pictures the grave as quiet and peaceful.
Overview
Job envisions death as lying down in stillness and sleep, free from his present torment. For him the grave represents relief from suffering rather than terror. This longing for rest is met more fully in the gospel hope, where Christ transforms death and offers true and everlasting rest.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 14:10–12But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
- Eccl 9:10Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
- Job 21:13They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace.
- Eccl 6:3–5A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
- Job 17:13If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
- Job 21:23One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease.
- Job 10:22to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
- Job 7:8–10The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.
- Job 7:21Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; You will seek me, but I will be no more.”
- Job 19:27I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!
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 3:13 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.