Had I died at birth, I would now be at 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,
- BSB For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and 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,
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 man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
- Eccl 9:10Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.
- Job 21:13They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.
- Eccl 6:3–5If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:
- Job 17:13If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
- Job 21:23One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
- Job 10:22the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”
- Job 7:8–10The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.
- Job 7:21Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.”
- Job 19:27Whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed 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.