Job 17:16

_THEY SHALL GO DOWN TO THE BARS OF THE PIT, WHEN OUR REST TOGETHER IS IN THE DUST._ They - namely, my hopes, shall be buried with me. BARS - (Isaiah 38:10, "I shall go to the gates of the grave;" Jonah 2:6, "The earth with her bars was about me for ever"). Rather, the wastes, or solitudes [badiym] of the pit (_ SHª'OWL_ (H7585), the unseen world). REST TOGETHER - the rest of me and my hopes is in, etc. Both expire together. The word "rest" implies that man's ceaseless hopes only rob him of rest. Remarks: (1) Stung to the quick by the mockings of his professed friends, and apparently on the verde of the grave, Job appeals from man to God. The believer, though tempted by sore trials to think that God is against

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 g...

Verse Job 17:16. _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

THEY SHALL GO DOWN - That is, my hopes shall go down. All the expectations that I have cherished of life and happiness, will descend there with me. We have a similar expression when we say, that a man “has buried his hopes in the grave,” when he loses an only son. TO THE BARS OF THE PIT - “Bars of Sheol” - שׁאול בד _bad_ _sh__e__'ôl_. Vulgate, “Profoundest deep.” Septuagint, εἰς ᾅδην _eis_ _hadēn_ - to Hades. Sheol, or Hades, was supposed to be under the earth. Its entrance was by the grave as a gate that led to it. It was protected by bars - as prisons are - so that those who entered there could not escape; see the notes at Isaiah 14:9. It was a dark, gloomy dwell

EXPOSITION JOB 17:1 The general character of this chapter has been considered in the introductory section to Job 16:1. It is occupied mainly with Job's complaints of his treatment by his friends, and his lamentations over his sufferings (verses 1-12). At the end he appeals to the grave, as the only hope or comfort left to him (verses 13-16). JOB 17:1 MY BREATH IS CORRUPT; or, _my spirit is oppressed. _But the physical meaning is the more probable one. A fetid breath is one of the surest signs of approaching dissolution. MY DAYS ARE EXTINCT; or, _cut off_. The verb used does not occur elsewhere. The graves are ready for me

THEY SHALL GO DOWN TO THE BARS OF THE PIT,.... He himself, and his friends, and the hopes they would have him entertain; these should all go down together to the grave, and there lie barred and locked up; these hopes, so as never to rise anymore, and the bodies of himself, and his friends, till loosed by him who has the keys of hell and death: or "the bars shall go down to the grave"; the members of his body, as Jarchi, which are the bars of it, as some in Bar Tzemach; the strength and support of it, as particularly the bones, these shall go down to the grave, and there turn to rottenness and dust; and therefore, as if he should say, as he elsewhere does, "what is my strength, that I should hope?" Job 6:11; WHEN [OUR] REST TOGETHER [IS] IN THE DUST; which is man's original, and to which he returns, and in which the dead lie and sleep until the resurrection; and where they are at r

GRAVE Hebrew, "Sheol," (_ See Scofield) - (Habakkuk 2:5). _...

CHAPTER S 16-17 JOB'S REPLY TO ELIPHAZ _ 1. Miserable comforters are ye all (Job 16:1)_ 2. Oh God! Thou hast done it! (Job 16:6) 3. Yet I look to Thee (Job 16:15) 4. Trouble upon trouble; self-pity (Job 17:1) 5. Where is now my hope? (Job 17:13) Job 16:1. How masterfully he meets their wrong accusations and how he brings forth his suffering afresh, yet always with that horrible nightmare, God is not for me, but against me! Such things Eliphaz spoke he had h

JOB 16:22 TO JOB 17:16. Job pleads in favour of his prayer for Divine vindication, that death is before him and he has no hope, if he must now die. JOB 17:2 is obscure; the general sense seems to be that Job complains of the delusive hopes, held out by the friends, of return to health and prosperity (Peake). Job 17:3 continues the idea of Job 16:20 f. God, as Job's advocate, is to give to God as his creditor a pledge that He will in the future vindicate him. Who else will strike hands with Job over such a bargain?...

THE PIT. Hebrew. _Sheol._ App-35. Compare Job 17:13....