Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
Parallel translations
- KJV Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
- BSB Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
- NKJV Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
- NASB “Have the gates of death been revealed to you, And have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
- NLT Do you know where the gates of death are located? Have you seen the gates of utter gloom?
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
Have the gates of death and the deep shadow ever been shown to Job? The realm of the dead is God's domain, not man's.
Overview
God asks whether Job has seen the entrances to death and its darkness. No living person possesses such knowledge. This points beyond Job's limits to God's sovereignty even over death, a power supremely displayed when Christ conquers the grave (Revelation 1:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 9:13Have mercy on me, Yahweh. See my affliction by those who hate me, and lift me up from the gates of death;
- Ps 107:18Their soul abhors all kinds of food. They draw near to the gates of death.
- Job 3:5Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.
- Ps 23:4Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
- Ps 107:10Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron,
- Job 12:22He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.
- Ps 107:14He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke away their chains.
- Amos 5:8seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name,
- Ps 116:3The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow.
- Matt 4:16the people who sat in darkness saw a great light, to those who sat in the region and shadow of death, to them light has dawned.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 38:17 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.