Job 17:13

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Job 17:13. If I wait, the grave is my house — Hebrew, אם אקוה, im akaveh, If I eagerly desire and expect any thing now, it is the grave, the only habitation I can promise myself; and which I am just entering. There I am going to rest in a bed where I shall not be disturbed, for which therefore I am preparing myself. In all situations, and amidst all changes, we should keep the grave in view, the bed in which we are shortly to lie, and, by preparation for it, should endeavour to make it easy, namely, by securing peace with God, by keeping our consciences pure, by seeing Christ lying in this bed, and so turning it into a bed of spices, and by looking beyond it to the resurrection.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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 eternal life. See how Job reconciles himself to the grave. Let this make believers willing to die; it is but going to bed; they are weary, and it is time that they were in their beds. Why should not they go willingly when their Father calls them? Let us remember our bodies are allied to corruption, the worm and the dust; and let us seek for that lively hope which shall be fulfilled, when the hope of the wicked shall be put out in darkness; that when our bodies are in the grave, our souls may enjoy the rest reserved for the people of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If I wait - Or more accurately, "truly I expect that the grave will be my home." The word rendered "if" (אם 'ı̂m) is often used in such a sense. The meaning is, "I look certainly to the grave as my home. I have made up my mind to it, and have no other expectation."

The grave - Hebrew שׁאול she'ôl. It may mean here either the grave, or the region of departed spirits, to which he expected soon to descend.

Mine house - My home; my permanent abode.

I have made my bed - I am certain of making my bed there. I shall soon lie down there.

In the darkness - In the grave, or in the dark world to which it leads; see the notes at Job 10:21-22.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

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.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

If I wait; if I should give way to those hopes of my deliverance and restoration which you suggest to me.

The grave is mine house: I should be sadly disappointed; for I am upon the borders of the grave, which is the only house appointed for me, instead of that goodly house which you promise to me here upon condition of my repentance.

I have made my bed in darkness; I expect no other rest but in the dark grave, for which therefore I prepare myself.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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 prosperous habitation, a line house, and affluent circumstances, Job 5:24. Now, says he, should I listen to this, and endeavour to cherish some hope and expectation of small things, and put myself in a waiting posture for them, alas! how soon would it be over, for what other house can I rationally expect but the grave? and this is what I have upon; I think of no other house than that, which is man's long home, the house appointed for all living; there I shall dwell, and make my abode until the morning of the resurrection, and I look for no other; and if I should, I am well assured! should be disappointed:

I have made my bed in the darkness: in the dark grave, where the light of the body is extinct, and where the light of the sun comes not; in houses there are various apartments, some for work and business, as is the shop; others for eating and drinking, as the dining room; and others for sleep and rest, as the bedchamber; now in the house of the grave there is no mention of any but the latter; for there is no work and device in the grave, nor eating and drinking there; but it is a bed where the weary saint lies down and rests upon from all his toil and labour, until he awakes at the resurrection: now Job had settled the matter with himself, he had laid it out in his own mind, and taken a kind of pleasure in the prospect of it; that he had got a house to move into, when he was dislodged from the earthly house of his tabernacle, and where he had made himself, in his own thought, an easy bed, on which he should lay his weary limbs, and take his sleep and rest, until the heavens be no more.

Geneva Study Bible

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

(n) Though I should hope to come from adversity to prosperity, as your discourse pretends.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. If I wait, the grave] Rather as above. The grave is in Heb. Sheol, the place of the departed. The word wait is the same as hope, Job 17:15.

13–15. The natural sense and connexion of these verses is as follows:

13.  If I wait for the grave as mine house;

If I have spread my bed in the darkness;

14.  If I have said to the pit, thou art my father,

To the worm, thou art my mother, and my sister:

15.  Where then is my hope?

And as for my hope, who shall see it?

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - If I wait, the grave is mine house; rather, surely I look for the grave (Sheol) as my house; i.e. I expect no return of prosperity, no renewal of life in a sumptuous mansion, no recovery of the state and dignity from which I have fallen - I look only for Sheol as my future abode and resting-place -there, in Sheol, I have made my bed in the darkness; i.e. I regard myself as already there, lying on my narrow bed in the darkness, at rest after my afflictions. Job 17:13

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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 are also expressed in the form of fresh thoughts, for which independent clauses seem more appropriate, under the government of אם, as if they were presuppositions. The transition from the preceding strophe to this becomes also easier, if we take Job 17:13. as independent clauses from which, in Job 17:15, an inference is drawn, with Waw indicative of the train of thought (Ew. 348). Accordingly, we regard אם־אקוה in Job 17:13 as antecedent (denoted by Dech, i.e., Tiphcha anterius, just as Psalm 139:8) and ביתי שׁאול as conclusion; the Waw apod. is wanting, as e.g., Job 9:27., and the structure of the sentence is similar to Job 9:19. If I hope, says Job, "Shel is my house" equals this is the substance of my hope, that Shel will be my house. In darkness he has (i.e., in his consciousness, which anticipates that which is before him as near and inevitable) fixed his resting-place (poet. strata, as Psalm 132:3). To corruption and the worm he already cries, father! and, mother! sister! It is, as it seems, that bold figure which is indicated in the Job-like Psalm 88:19 ("my acquaintances are the realms of darkness"), which is here (comp. Job 30:29) worked out; and, differently applied, perhaps Proverbs 7:4 echoes it. Since the fem. רמּה is used as the object addressed by אמי and אחותי, which is besides, on account of its always collective meaning (in distinction from תילעת), well suited for this double apostrophe, we may assume that the poet will have used a masc. object for אבי; and there is really no reason against שׁחת here being, with Ramban, Rosenm., Schlottm., Bttcher (de inferis, 179), derived not from שׁוּח (as נחת, Job 17:16, from נוח), but from שׁחת (as נחת, Isaiah 30:30, from נחת), especially since the old versions transl. שׁחת also elsewhere διαφθορά (putredo), and thereby prove that both derivations accord with the structure of the language. Now already conscious of his belonging to corruption and the worm as by the closest ties of relationship, he asks: Itaque ubi tandem spes mea?

The accentuation connects אפו to the following word, instead of uniting it with איּה, just as in Isaiah 19:12; Luzzatto (on Isaiah 19:12) considers this as a mistake in the Codd., and certainly the accentuation Judges 9:38 (איה Kadma, אפוא Mercha) is not according to our model, and even in this passage another arrangement of the accents is found, e.g., in the edition of Brescia.

(Note: This accentuates ואיה with Munach, אפו with Munach, which accords with the matter, instead of which, according to Luzz., since the Athnach-word תקותי consists of three syllables, it should be more correctly accentuated ואיה with Munach, אפו with Dech. Both, also Munach Munach, are admissible; vid., Br, Thorath Emeth, S. 43, 7, comp. S. 71, not.)

No other hope, in Job's opinion, but speedy death is before him; no human eye is capable of seeing, i.e., of discovering (so e.g., Hahn), any other hope than just this. Somewhat differently Hirz. and others: and my hope, viz., of my recovery, who will it see in process of fulfilment? Certainly תקותי is in both instances equivalent to a hope which he dared to harbour; and the meaning is, that beside the one hope which he has, and which is a hope only per antiphrasin, there is no room for another hope; there is none such (Job 17:15), and no one will attain a sight of such, be it visible in the distance or experienced as near at hand (Job 17:15). The subj. of Job 17:16 is not the hope of recovery which the friends present to him (so e.g., Ew.), but his only real hope: this, avoiding human ken, descends to the lower world, for it is the hope of death, and consequently the death of hope. בּדּי signifies bars, bolts, which Hahn denies, although he says himself that בדים signifies beams of wood among other things; "bolts" is not here intended to imply such as are now used in locks, but the cross bars and beams of wood of any size that serve as a fastening to a door; vectis in exactly the same manner combines the meanings, a carrying-pole and a bar, in which signification בּד is the synon. of בּריח.

(Note: Accordingly we also explain Hosea 11:6 after Lamentations 2:9, and transl.: The sword moveth round in his (Ephraim's) cities, and destroyeth his (Ephraim's) bars (i.e., the bars of his gates), and devoureth round about, because of their counsels.)

The meanings assigned to the word, wastes (Schnurrer and others), bounds (Hahn), clefts (Bttch.), and the like, are fanciful and superfluous. On תּרדנה, instead of תּרד, vid., Caspari on Obad. Oba 1:13, Ges. 47, rem. 3. It is sing., not plur. (Bttch.), for Job 17:15 does not speak of two hopes, not even if, as it seems according to the ancient versions, another word of cognate meaning had stood in the place of the second תקותי originally. His hope goes down to the regions of the dead, when altogether there is rest in the dust. This "together, יחד," Hahn explains: to me and it, to this hope; but that would be pursuing the figure to an inadmissible length, extending far beyond Job 20:11, and must then be expressed יחד לנוּ. Others (e.g., Hirz., Ew.) explain: if at the same time, i.e., simultaneously with this descent of my hope, there is rest to me in the dust. Considering the use of יחד in itself, it might be explained: if altogether entirely there is rest in the dust; but this meaning integer, totus quantus, the word has elsewhere always in connection with a subj. or obj. to which it is referable, e.g., Job 10:8; Psalm 33:15; and, moreover, it may be rendered also in the like passages by "all together," as Job 3:18; Job 21:26; Job 40:13, instead of "altogether, entirely." Since, on the other hand, the signification "at the same time" can at least with probability be supported by Psalm 141:10, and since אם, which is certainly used temporally, brings contemporary things together, we prefer the translation: "when at the same time in the dust there is rest." The descent of his hope to the bars of Hades is at the same time his own, who hopes for nothing but this. When the death of his hope becomes a reality, then at the same time his turmoil of suffering will pass over to the rest of the grave.

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