Job 7:7

7:7 Remember ¹  that my life is but a breath,

that ²  my eyes will never again ³  see happiness.

Job 17:1

17:1 My spirit is broken, ⁴ 

my days have faded out, ⁵ 

the grave ⁶  awaits me.

Job 17:13-16

17:13 If ⁷  I hope for the grave to be my home,

if I spread out my bed in darkness,

17:14 If I cry ⁸  to corruption, ⁹  ‘You are my father,’

and to the worm, ‘My Mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

17:15 where then ¹⁰  is my hope?

And my hope, ¹¹  who sees it?

17:16 Will ¹²  it ¹³  go down to the barred gates ¹⁴  of death?

Will ¹⁵  we descend ¹⁶  together into the dust?”

Job 17:1

17:1 My spirit is broken, ¹⁷ 

my days have faded out, ¹⁸ 

the grave ¹⁹  awaits me.

Job 2:6

2:6 So the Lord said to Satan, “All right, ²⁰  he is ²¹  in your power; ²²  only preserve ²³  his life.”

Psalms 30:3

30:3 O Lord, you pulled me ²⁴  up from Sheol;

you rescued me from among those descending into the grave. ²⁵ 

Psalms 88:3-5

88:3 For my life ²⁶  is filled with troubles

and I am ready to enter Sheol. ²⁷ 

88:4 They treat me like ²⁸  those who descend into the grave. ²⁹ 

I am like a helpless man, ³⁰ 

88:5 adrift ³¹  among the dead,

like corpses lying in the grave,

whom you remember no more,

and who are cut off from your power. ³² 

Isaiah 38:10

38:10 “I thought, ³³ 

‘In the middle of my life ³⁴  I must walk through the gates of Sheol,

I am deprived ³⁵  of the rest of my years.’

[7:7]  ¹ sn Job is probably turning here to God, as is clear from v. 11 on. The NIV supplies the word “God” for clarification. It was God who breathed breath into man’s nostrils (Gen 2:7), and so God is called to remember that man is but a breath.

[7:7]  ² tn The word “that” is supplied in the translation.

[7:7]  ³ tn The verb with the infinitive serves as a verbal hendiadys: “return to see” means “see again.”

[17:1]  ⁴ tn The verb חָבַל (khaval, “to act badly”) in the Piel means “to ruin.” The Pual translation with “my spirit” as the subject means “broken” in the sense of finished (not in the sense of humbled as in Ps 51).

[17:1]  ⁵ tn The verb זָעַךְ (za’aq, equivalent of Aramaic דָעַק [da’aq]) means “to be extinguished.” It only occurs here in the Hebrew.

[17:1]  ⁶ tn The plural “graves” could be simply an intensification, a plural of extension (see GKC 397 §124.c), or a reference to the graveyard. Coverdale had: “I am harde at deathes dore.” The Hebrew expression simply reads “graves for me.” It probably means that graves await him.

[17:13]  ⁷ tn The clause begins with אִם (’im) which here has more of the sense of “since.” E. Dhorme (Job, 253) takes a rather rare use of the word to get “Can I hope again” (see also GKC 475 §150.f for the caveat).

[17:14]  ⁸ tn This is understood because the conditional clauses seem to run to the apodosis in v. 15.

[17:14]  ⁹ tn The word שַׁחַת (shakhat) may be the word “corruption” from a root שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to destroy”) or a word “pit” from שׁוּחַ (shuakh, “to sink down”). The same problem surfaces in Ps 16:10, where it is parallel to “Sheol.” E. F. Sutcliffe, The Old Testament and the Future Life, 76ff., defends the meaning “corruption.” But many commentators here take it to mean “the grave” in harmony with “Sheol.” But in this verse “worms” would suggest “corruption” is better.

[17:15]  ¹⁰ tn The adverb אֵפוֹ (’efo, “then”) plays an enclitic role here (see Job 4:7).

[17:15]  ¹¹ tn The repetition of “my hope” in the verse has thrown the versions off, and their translations have led commentators also to change the second one to something like “goodness,” on the assumption that a word cannot be repeated in the same verse. The word actually carries two different senses here. The first would be the basic meaning “hope,” but the second a metonymy of cause, namely, what hope produces, what will be seen.

[17:16]  ¹² sn It is natural to assume that this verse continues the interrogative clause of the preceding verse.

[17:16]  ¹³ tn The plural form of the verb probably refers to the two words, or the two senses of the word in the preceding verse. Hope and what it produces will perish with Job.

[17:16]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew word בַּדִּים (baddim) describes the “bars” or “bolts” of Sheol, referring (by synecdoche) to the “gates of Sheol.” The LXX has “with me to Sheol,” and many adopt that as “by my side.”

[17:16]  ¹⁵ tn The conjunction אִם (’im) confirms the interrogative interpretation.

[17:16]  ¹⁶ tn The translation follows the LXX and the Syriac versions with the change of vocalization in the MT. The MT has the noun “rest,” yielding, “will our rest be together in the dust?” The verb נָחַת (nakhat) in Aramaic means “to go down; to descend.” If that is the preferred reading – and it almost is universally accepted here – then it would be spelled נֵחַת (nekhat). In either case the point of the verse is clearly describing death and going to the grave.

[17:1]  ¹⁷ tn The verb חָבַל (khaval, “to act badly”) in the Piel means “to ruin.” The Pual translation with “my spirit” as the subject means “broken” in the sense of finished (not in the sense of humbled as in Ps 51).

[17:1]  ¹⁸ tn The verb זָעַךְ (za’aq, equivalent of Aramaic דָעַק [da’aq]) means “to be extinguished.” It only occurs here in the Hebrew.

[17:1]  ¹⁹ tn The plural “graves” could be simply an intensification, a plural of extension (see GKC 397 §124.c), or a reference to the graveyard. Coverdale had: “I am harde at deathes dore.” The Hebrew expression simply reads “graves for me.” It probably means that graves await him.

[2:6]  ²⁰ tn The particle הִנּוֹ (hinno) is literally, “here he is!” God presents Job to Satan, with the restriction on preserving Job’s life.

[2:6]  ²¹ tn The LXX has “I deliver him up to you.”

[2:6]  ²² tn Heb “hand.”

[2:6]  ²³ sn The irony of the passage comes through with this choice of words. The verb שָׁמַר (shamar) means “to keep; to guard; to preserve.” The exceptive clause casts Satan in the role of a savior – he cannot destroy this life but must protect it.

[30:3]  ²⁴ tn Or “my life.”

[30:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you kept me alive from those descending into the pit.” The Hebrew noun בוֹר (bor, “pit, cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead. The translation follows the consonantal Hebrew text (Kethib); the marginal reading (Qere) has, “you kept me alive so that I did not go down into the pit.”

[88:3]  ²⁶ tn Or “my soul.”

[88:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and my life approaches Sheol.”

[88:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I am considered with.”

[88:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit,” “cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.

[88:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “I am like a man [for whom] there is no help.”

[88:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “set free.”

[88:5]  ³² tn Heb “from your hand.”

[38:10]  ³³ tn Or “I said” (KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[38:10]  ³⁴ tn The precise meaning of the phrase בִּדְמִי יָמַי (bidmi yamay, “in the [?] of my days”) is uncertain. According to HALOT 226 s.v. דְּמִי this word is a hapax legomenon meaning “half.” Others derive the form from דַּמִי (dami, “quiet, rest, peacefulness”).

[38:10]  ³⁵ tn The precise meaning of the verb is uncertain. The Pual of of פָּקַד (paqad) occurs only here and in Exod 38:21, where it appears to mean “passed in review” or “mustered.” Perhaps the idea is, “I have been called away for the remainder of my years.” To bring out the sense more clearly, one can translate, “I am deprived of the rest of my years.”