Job 7:9
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As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Job, in this chapter, goes on to express the bitter sense he had of his calamities and to justify himself in his desire of death. I. He complains to himself and his friends of his troubles, and the constant agitation he was in (Job 7:1-6). II. He turns to God, and expostulates with him (Job 7:7, to the end), in which, 1. He pleads the final period which death puts to our present state (Job 7:7-10). 2. He passionately complains of the miserable condition he was now in (Job 7:11-16). 3. He wonders that God will thus contend with him, and begs for the pardon of his sins and a speedy release out of his miseries (Job 7:17-21). It is hard to methodize the speeches of one who owned himself almost desperate, Job 6:26.
Open source ↗7:9 die (literally go down to Sheol): This is the first explicit mention of Sheol in Job. It is described as a place of rest from earthly pressures and distinctions (3:13-19) and as a dark dwelling place (10:21-22; 17:13) deep in the earth (11:8) that is covered in dust (17:16). It is the destiny of all the living (30:23) from which no one can return (10:21; see Gen 37:25; 2 Sam 12:12).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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before I go—never to return— to a land of darkness and gloom,
For surely we will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.
Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.
For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.
But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may again be cheered before I depart and am no more.”
I said, “I will never again see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living; I will no longer look on mankind with those who dwell in this world.
They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them.