Job 17 · Verse 1

Job 17:1

My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
Job 17:1, King James Version

Job 17:1 in other translations

BSB“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.
WEB“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct and the grave is ready for me.
ASVMy spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, The grave is ready for me.
YLTMy spirit hath been destroyed, My days extinguished--graves are for me.
DARBYMy breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are mine.
BBEMy spirit is broken, my days are ended, the last resting-place is ready for me.
WebsterMy breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.

What does Job 17:1 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

Job 17:1-16. Job's Answer Continued.

1. breath ... corrupt--result of elephantiasis. But Umbreit, "my strength (spirit) is spent." extinct--Life is compared to an expiring light. "The light of my day is extinguished." graves--plural, to heighten the force.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Introduction

Job complains of the injustice of his friends, and compares his present state of want and wo with his former honor and affluence, Job 17:1-6. God's dealings with him will ever astonish upright men; yet the righteous shall not be discouraged, but hold on his way, Job 17:7-9. Asserts that there is not a wise man among his friends, and that he has no expectation but of a speedy death, Job 17:10-16. Verse 1 My breath is corrupt - Rather, My spirit is oppressed, רוחי חבלה ruchi chubbalah: My days are extinct, and the sepulchral cells are ready for me - Parkhurst. There is probably a reference here to cemeteries, where were several niches, in Each of which a corpse was deposited. See on Job 17:16 (note). For חבלה chubbalah, corrupted or oppressed, some MSS. have חלה chalah, is made weak; and one has גבלה is worn down, consumed: this is agreeable to the Vulgate, Spiritus meus attenuebatur; "My spirit is exhausted."

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 17:1-9
Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see the good use the righteous should make of Job's afflictions from God, from enemies, and from friends. Instead of being discouraged in the service of God, by the hard usage this faithful servant of God met with, they should be made bold to proceed and persevere therein. Those who keep their eye upon heaven as their end, will keep their feet in the paths of religion as their way, whatever difficulties and discouragements they may meet with.

Matthew Henry, 1706 · public domain

Job 17:1 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

רוּחִ֣יru.Chispirit myH7307
חֻ֭בָּלָהChu.ba.lahit is brokenH2254
יָמַ֥יya.Maidays myH3117
נִזְעָ֗כוּniz.'A.khuthey are extinguishedH2193
קְבָרִ֥יםke.va.Rimgrave<s>H6913
לִֽי\׃Li[belong] to me

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 17:1

  • Isaiah 38:10-14

    I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. …

  • Psalms 88:3-5

    For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength: Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

  • Job 17:13-14

    If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

  • Job 42:16

    After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations.

  • Job 6:11

    What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?

  • Isaiah 57:16

    For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.

  • Job 19:17

    My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1 Job appeals from men to God.
6 The unmerciful dealing of men with the afflicted may astonish, but not discourage the righteous.
11 His hope is not in life, but in death.

breath is corrupt. or, spirit is spent.
19:17
my days.
6:11; 42:16; Isa 57:16
the graves.
13,14; Ps 88:3-5; Isa 38:10-14

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Job 17:1

    My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.

  • Job 17:2

    Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

Read all of Job 17

Job 17:1 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		MI ALIENTO está corrompido, acórtanse mis días, y me está aparejado el sepulcro.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Mon souffle est corrompu, mes jours s’éteignent: pour moi sont les sépulcres!
German
Elberfelder 1871		Mein Geist ist verstört, meine Tage erlöschen, die Gräber sind für mich.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Spiritus meus attenuabitur; dies mei breviabuntur: et solum mihi superest sepulchrum.