Job 17:13

If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
wait	אֲ֭קַוֶּה 'A.ka.veh	H6960	to bind together (perhaps by twisting) · verb, piel imperfect, 1st person common singular
grave	שְׁא֣וֹל she.'ol	H7585	Hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean re… · noun, common both genders singular absolute
house	בֵּיתִ֑י bei.Ti	H1004	a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
made	רִפַּ֥דְתִּי ri.Pad.ti	H7502	to spread (a bed) · verb, piel perfect, 1st person common singular
bed	יְצוּעָֽי ye.tzu.'Ai	H3326	spread · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
darkness	בַּ֝חֹ֗שֶׁךְ ba.Cho.shekh	H2822	the dark · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Job 10:21-22 Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
Job 3:13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Job 17:1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
Job 30:23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
Psalms 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
Psalms 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
Isaiah 57:2 He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 17:10–end

Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hopes of his return to a prosperous estate again; now he here shows, I. That it was their folly to talk so (Job 17:10): "Return, and come now, be convinced that you are in an error, and let me persuade you to be of my mind; for I cannot find one wise man among you, that knows how to explain the difficulties of God's providence or how to apply the consolations of his promises." Those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted who fetch their comforts from the possibility of their recovery and enlargement in this world; though that is not to be despaired of, it is at the best uncertain; and if it should fail, as perhaps it ma…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 17:13

Rather, "if I wait for this grave (Sheol, or the unseen world) as my house, and make my bed in the darkness (Job 17:14), and say to corruption," rather, "to the pit" or "grave," &c. (Job 17:15). Where then is my hope? [UMBREIT]. The apodosis is at Job 17:15.

John Gill on Job 17:13

If I wait, the grave is mine house,.... Not that Job put an "if" upon, or made a doubt of waiting upon God in private or public; or of waiting for him, his gracious appearances to him, answers of prayer, performance of promises, and deliverance out of trouble; and especially of waiting his appointed time till his change came, and hoping and expecting eternal life and happiness; all which he determined to do, and did, see Job 13:15; but he says this with respect to the advice of his friends, which should it be taken, the issue of would be no other than what he here suggests; they had intimated, that if he repented and reformed, he might hope for and expect a peaceable tabernacle, and a prospe…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Job 17:13–end

13 If I hope, it is for Shel as my house, In darkness I make my bed. 14 I cry to corruption: Thou art my father! - To the worm: Thou art my mother and sister! 15 Where now therefore is my hope? And my hope, who seeth it? 16 To the bars of Shel it descends, When at the same time there is rest in the dust. All modern expositors transl.: If I hope (wait) for Shel as my house, etc., since they regard Job 17:13. as a hypothetical antecedent clause to Job 17:15, consisting of four members, where the conclusion should begin with ואיּה, and should be indicated by Waw apodosis. There is no objection to this explanation so far as the syntax is concerned, but there will then be weighty thoughts which…

The Church Fathers

"If I still support, hell will be my home. If I bear the burden of my sins, so as not to confess them.
— Augustine of Hippo, ANNOTATIONS ON THE BOOK OF JOB (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Ver. 13. If I wait, hell is mine house; and I have made my bed in the darkness. For the former Saints could undergo adversity, and yet could not, when brought out of the body, be at once freed from the regions of hell; in that He had not yet come, Who should descend thereinto without sin, that He might set free those, who were there bound by right of sin. And man then 'made his bed in darkness,' when he forsook the light of righteousness by consenting to the crafty Prompter: and whereas in those very regions of hell the souls of the righteous were kept imprisoned without torment, so that both on behalf of original sin they should still go down thereunto, and yet by light of their own deeds not undergo punishment; to have 'made their bed in the darkness,' in a manner, is to have prepared themselves rest in hell. For it was sad weariness to the Elect, after the dissolution of the flesh, not yet to see the likeness of the Creator. Which wearisomeness blessed Job not improperly designates 'darkness.'
— Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIII

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Darkness — The plague (the ninth) of darkness in Egypt (Ex. 10:21) is described as darkness “which may be felt.” It covered “all the land of Egypt,” so that “they saw not one another.” It did not extend to the…
Beds · Illustrative: (Made in darkness,) of extreme misery — Illustrative: (Made in darkness,) of extreme misery
Dead (People) · UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Despondency · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Hell · “Sheol” is translated “grave” in A. V. in — “Sheol” is translated “grave” in A. V. in

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Job 17:13

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 17:10–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 17:13

John Gill on Job 17:13

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 17:13–end

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Job 17:13

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 17:10–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 17:13

John Gill on Job 17:13

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 17:13–end

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Job 17:13

Rashi on Job 17:13