Job 3:18

Bible in Basic English

There the prisoners are at peace together; the voice of the overseer comes not again to their ears.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The captives are completely at rest;they do not hear a taskmaster’s voice.

Hebrew Names Version
There the prisoners are at ease together. They don't hear the voice of the taskmaster.

King James Version
There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

English Standard Version
There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

New Century Version
In the grave there is rest for the captives who no longer hear the shout of the slave driver.

New English Translation
There the prisoners relax together; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

Amplified Bible
"There the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the taskmaster's voice.

New American Standard Bible
"The prisoners are at ease together; They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.

World English Bible
There the prisoners are at ease together. They don't hear the voice of the taskmaster.

Geneva Bible (1587)
The prisoners rest together, and heare not the voyce of the oppressour.

Legacy Standard Bible
The prisoners are at ease together;They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.

Berean Standard Bible
The captives enjoy their ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

Contemporary English Version
Everyone is there—

Complete Jewish Bible
Great and small alike are there, and the slave is free of his master.

Darby Translation
The prisoners together are at ease; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

Easy-to-Read Version
Even prisoners find relief there; they no longer hear their guards shouting at them.

George Lamsa Translation
There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

Good News Translation
Even prisoners enjoy peace, free from shouts and harsh commands.

Lexham English Bible
the prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the oppressor's voice.

Literal Translation
the prisoners are at ease together, they hear not the voice of the slave driver;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
there are those letten out fre, which haue bene in preson, so that they heare nomore the voyce of the oppressoure:

American Standard Version
There the prisoners are at ease together; They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
There the prisoners rest together, they heare no more the voyce of the oppressour:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

King James Version (1611)
There the prisoners rest together, they heare not the voice of the oppressour.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the men of old time have together ceased to hear the exactor’s voice.

English Revised Version
There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And sum tyme boundun togidere with out disese thei herden not the voys of the wrongful axere.

Update Bible Version
There the prisoners are at ease together; They don't hear the voice of the taskmaster.

Webster's Bible Translation
[There] the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

New King James Version
There the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

New Living Translation
Even captives are at ease in death, with no guards to curse them.

New Life Bible
Those in prison are at rest together. They do not hear the voice of the one who rules over their work.

New Revised Standard
There the prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
At once are prisoners at peace, they hear not the voice of a driver:

Douay-Rheims Bible
And they sometime bound together without disquiet, have not heard the voice of the oppressor.

Revised Standard Version
There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

Young's Literal Translation
Together prisoners have been at ease, They have not heard the voice of an exactor,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"The prisoners are at ease together; They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.

Contextual Overview

¹¹ Why did death not take me when I came out of my mother's body, why did I not, when I came out, give up my last breath? ¹² Why did the knees take me, or why the breasts that they might give me milk? ¹³ For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in sleep have been in peace, ¹⁴ With kings and the wise ones of the earth, who put up great houses for themselves; ¹⁵ Or with rulers who had gold, and whose houses were full of silver; ¹⁶ Or as a child dead at birth I might never have come into existence; like young children who have not seen the light. ¹⁷ There the passions of the evil are over, and those whose strength has come to an end have rest. ¹⁸ There the prisoners are at peace together; the voice of the overseer comes not again to their ears. ¹⁹ The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

they: Job 39:7, Exodus 5:6-8, Exodus 5:15-19, Judges 4:3, Isaiah 14:3, Isaiah 14:4

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 28:30 - build Job 21:26 - alike Job 21:33 - sweet Ecclesiastes 9:6 - their love

Cross-References

Genesis 3:14
And the Lord God said to the snake, Because you have done this you are cursed more than all cattle and every beast of the field; you will go flat on the earth, and dust will be your food all the days of your life:

Genesis 3:15
And there will be war between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed: by him will your head be crushed and by you his foot will be wounded.

Joshua 23:13
Then you may be certain that the Lord your God will not go on driving these nations out from before you; but they will become a danger and a cause of sin to you, a whip for your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you are cut off from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

Job 1:21
With nothing I came out of my mother's body, and with nothing I will go back there; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; let the Lord's name be praised.

Job 5:5
Their produce is taken by him who has no food, and their grain goes to the poor, and he who is in need of water gets it from their spring.

Job 31:40
Then in place of grain let thorns come up, and in place of barley evil-smelling plants.

Psalms 90:3
You send man back to his dust; and say, Go back, you children of men.

Psalms 104:2
You are clothed with light as with a robe; stretching out the heavens like a curtain:

Proverbs 22:5
Thorns and nets are in the way of the twisted: he who keeps watch over his soul will be far from them.

Proverbs 24:31
And it was all full of thorns, and covered with waste plants, and its stone wall was broken down.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[There] the prisoners rest together,.... "Are at ease", as Mr. Broughton renders the words; such who while they lived were in prison for debt, or were condemned to the galleys, to lead a miserable life; or such who suffered bonds and imprisonment for the sake of religion, at death their chains are knocked off, and they are as much at liberty, and enjoy as much ease, as the dead that never were prisoners; and not only rest together with those who were their fellow prisoners, but with those who never were in prison, yea, with those who cast them into it; for there the prisoners and those that imprisoned them are upon a level, enjoying equal ease and liberty:

they hear not the voice of the oppressor; or "exactor" x; neither of their creditors that demanded their debt of them, and threatened them with a prison, or that detained them in it; nor of the jail keeper that gave them hard words as well as stripes; nor of cruel taskmasters, who kept them to hard service in prison, and threatened them severely if they did not perform it, like the taskmasters in Egypt, Exodus 5:11; but, in the grave, the blustering, terrifying, voice of such, is not heard.

x נגש "exactoris", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, &c.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

There the prisoners rest together - Herder translates this, “There the prisoners rejoice in their freedom.” The Septuagint strangely enough, “There they of old (ὁ αἰώνιοι hoi aiōnioi) assembled together (ὁμοθυμαδόν homothumadon) have not heard the voice of the exactor.” The Hebrew word שׁאן shâ'an means “to rest, to be quiet, to be tranquil”; and the sense is, that they are in the grave freed from chains and oppressions.

They hear not the voice of the oppressor - Of him who exacted taxes, and who laid on them heavy burdens, and who imprisoned them for imaginary crimes. He who is bound in chains, and who has no other prospect of release, can look for it in the grave and will find it there. Similar sentiments are found respecting death in Seneca, ad Marcian, 20: “Mots omnibus finis, multis remedium, quibusdam votum; haec servitutem invito domino remittit; haec captivorum catenas levat; haec a carcere reducit, quos exire imperium impofens vetuerat; haec exulibus, in pairtam semper animum oculosque tendentibus, ostendit, nibil interesse inter quos quisque jaceat; haec, ubi res communes fortuna male divisit, et aequo jure genitos allure alii donavit, exaequat omnia; haec est, quae nihil quidquam alieno fecit arbitrio; haec est, ea qua nemo humilitatem guam sensit; haec est, quae nuili paruit.” The sense in Job is, that all are at liberty in death. Chains no longer bind; prisons no longer incarccrate; the voice of oppression no longer alarms.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 3:18. The prisoners rest together — Those who were slaves, feeling all the troubles, and scarcely tasting any of the pleasures of life, are quiet in the grave together; and the voice of the oppressor, the hard, unrelenting task-master, which was more terrible than death, is heard no more. They are free from his exactions, and his mouth is silent in the dust. This may be a reference to the Egyptian bondage. The children of Israel cried by reason of their oppressors or task-masters.