Job 17 · Verse 16

Job 17:16

They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
Job 17:16, King James Version

Job 17:16 in other translations

BSBWill it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”
WEBShall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”
ASVIt shall go down to the bars of Sheol, When once there is rest in the dust.
YLTTo the parts of Sheol ye go down, If together on the dust we may rest.
DARBYIt shall go down to the bars of Sheol, when our rest shall be together in the dust.
BBEWill they go down with me into the underworld? Will we go down together into the dust?
WebsterThey shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

What does Job 17:16 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
16. They--namely, my hopes shall be buried with me. bars--(Is 38:10). Rather, the wastes or solitudes of the pit (sheol, the unseen world). rest together--the rest of me and my hope is in, &c. Both expire together. The word "rest" implies that man's ceaseless hopes only rob him of rest.

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit - All that I have must descend into the depths of the grave. Thither are we all going; and there alone can I rest. בדי baddey, which we translate bars, signifies also branches, distended limbs, or claws, and may here refer either to a personification of the grave, a monster who seizes on human bodies, and keeps them fast in his deadly gripe; or to the different branching-off-alleys in subterranean cemeteries, or catacombs, in which niches are made for the reception of different bodies. When our rest together is in the dust - That is, according to some critics, My hope and myself shall descend together into the grave. It shall never be realized, for the time of my departure is at hand. In those times what deep shades hung on the state of man after death, and on every thing pertaining to the eternal world! Perplexity and uncertainty were the consequences; and a corresponding gloom often dwelt on the minds of even the best of the Old Testament believers. Job's friends, though learned in all the wisdom of the Arabians, connected with the advantages derivable from the Mosaic writings, and perhaps those of the earlier prophets, had little clear or distinct in their minds relative to all subjects post mortem, or of the invisible world. Job himself, though sometimes strongly confident, is often harassed with doubts and fears upon the subject, insomuch that his sayings and experience often appear contradictory. Perhaps it could not be otherwise; the true light was not then come: Jesus alone brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 17:10-16

Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hope of his return to a prosperous estate; he here shows that those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted, who fetch their comforts from the possibility of recovery in this world. It is our wisdom to comfort ourselves, and others, in distress, with that which will not fail; the promise of God, his love and grace, and a well-grounded hope of…

Read the full comment on Job 17:10-16 →

Job 17:16 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.

בַּדֵּ֣יba.Dei[the] poles ofH905
שְׁאֹ֣לshe.'OlSheolH7585
תֵּרַ֑דְנָהte.Rad.nahwill they go down?H3381
אִם\־'im-or?H518
יַ֖חַדYa.chadtogetherH3162
עַל\־'al-toH5921
עָפָ֣ר'a.Far[the] dustH6083
נָֽחַת\׃\ \סNa.chatwill we descendH5181

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

Cross references for Job 17:16

  • Job 3:17-19

    There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.

  • Jonah 2:6

    I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.

  • Ezekiel 37:11

    Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

  • Isaiah 38:17-18

    Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

  • Job 18:13-14

    It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength. His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.

  • Job 33:18-28

    He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain: So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. …

  • Psalms 143:7

    Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

  • Psalms 88:4-8

    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. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah. …

  • 2 Corinthians 1:9

    But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

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

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
the bars of the pit.
18:13,14; 33:18-28; Ps 88:4-8; 143:7; Isa 38:17,18; Jon 2:6
rest.
3:17-19; Eze 37:11; 2Co 1:9

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

Context

  • Job 17:15

    And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?

  • Job 17:16

    They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

Read all of Job 17

Job 17:16 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		A los rincones de la huesa descenderán, y juntamente descansarán en el polvo.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Il descendra vers les barres du shéol, lorsque ensemble nous aurons du repos dans la poussière.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Sie fährt hinab zu den Riegeln des Scheols, wenn wir miteinander im Staube Ruhe haben.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		In profundissimum infernum descendent omnia mea: putasne saltem ibi erit requies mihi?