16 It shall go down to the bars of Sheol, when [our] rest shall be together in the dust.
There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the wearied are at rest. The prisoners together are at ease; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster. The small and great are there, and the bondman freed from his master.
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The bars of the earth [closed] upon me for ever: But thou hast brought up my life from the pit, O Jehovah my God.
He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from passing away by the sword. He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and with constant strife in his bones; And his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty food; His flesh is consumed away from view, and his bones that were not seen stick out; And his soul draweth near to the pit, and his life to the destroyers. If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his duty; Then he will be gracious unto him, and say, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than in childhood; he shall return to the days of his youth. He shall pray unto +God, and he will receive him with favour; and he shall see his face with shoutings, and he will render unto man his righteousness. He will sing before men, and say, I have sinned, and perverted what was right, and it hath not been requited to me; He hath delivered my soul from going into the pit, and my life shall see the light.
I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength: Prostrate among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave; whom thou rememberest no more, and who are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps. Thy fury lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. Selah. Thou hast put my familiar friends far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
Behold, instead of peace I had bitterness upon bitterness; but thou hast in love delivered my soul from the pit of destruction; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. For not Sheol shall praise thee, nor death celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit do not hope for thy truth.
And he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off!
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 17
Commentary on Job 17 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 17
In this chapter,
His friends becoming strange to him, which greatly grieved him, he makes death and the grave familiar to him, which yielded him some comfort.
Job 17:1-9
Job's discourse is here somewhat broken and interrupted, and he passes suddenly from one thing to another, as is usual with men in trouble; but we may reduce what is here said to three heads:-
Job 17:10-16
Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hopes of his return to a prosperous estate again; now he here shows,