Job 17:14

Easy-to-Read Version

I might say to the grave, ‘You are my father,' and to the worms, ‘my mother' or ‘my sister.'

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
and say to corruption, “You are my father,”and to the maggot, “My mother” or “My sister,”

Hebrew Names Version
If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;' To the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'

King James Version
I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

English Standard Version
if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,' and to the worm, ‘My mother,' or ‘My sister,'

New Century Version
if I say to the grave, ‘You are my father,' and to the worm, ‘You are my mother' or ‘You are my sister,'

New English Translation
If I cry to corruption, ‘You are my father,' and to the worm, ‘My Mother,' or ‘My sister,'

Amplified Bible
If I call out to the pit (grave), 'You are my father'; And to the worm [that feeds on decay], 'You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you],'

New American Standard Bible
If I call to the grave, 'You are my father'; To the maggot, 'my mother and my sister';

World English Bible
If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;' To the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'

Geneva Bible (1587)
I shall say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worme, Thou art my mother and my sister.

Legacy Standard Bible
If I call to the pit, ‘You are my father';To the worm, ‘my mother and my sister';

Berean Standard Bible
and say to corruption, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother,' or 'My sister,'

Contemporary English Version
Then I could greet the grave as my father and say to the worms, "Hello, mother and sisters!"

Complete Jewish Bible
if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,' and to worms, ‘You are my mother and sister,'

Darby Translation
I cry to the grave, Thou art my father! to the worm, My mother, and my sister!

George Lamsa Translation
I have said to corruption, You are my father; to the worm, You are my mother and my sister.

Good News Translation
I will call the grave my father, and the worms that eat me I will call my mother and my sisters.

Lexham English Bible
if I call to the pit, ‘You are my father,' to the maggot, ‘You are my mother or my sister,'

Literal Translation
I have said to corruption, You are my father; to the worm, My mother and my sister.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I call corrupcion my father, and the wormes call I my mother and my sister.

American Standard Version
If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;

Bible in Basic English
If I say to the earth, You are my father; and to the worm, My mother and my sister;

JPS Old Testament (1917)
If I have said to corruption: 'Thou art my father', to the worm: 'Thou art my mother, and my sister';

King James Version (1611)
I haue said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worme, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
I saide to corruption, thou art my father, and to the wormes, you are my mother and my sister.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
I have called upon death to be my father, and corruption to be my mother and sister.

English Revised Version
If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y seide to rot, Thou art my fadur; and to wormes, Ye ben my modir and my sister.

Update Bible Version
If I have said to corruption, You are my father; To the worm, [You are] my mother, and my sister;

Webster's Bible Translation
I have said to corruption, Thou [art] my father: to the worm, [Thou art] my mother, and my sister.

New King James Version
If I say to corruption, "You are my father,' And to the worm, "You are my mother and my sister,'

New Living Translation
What if I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?

New Life Bible
If I say to the grave, ‘You are my father,' and to the worm, ‘My mother and my sister,'

New Revised Standard
if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,' and to the worm, ‘My mother,' or ‘My sister,'

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
To corruption, have exclaimed, My father, thou! My mother! and My sister! to the worm.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I have said to rottenness: Thou art my father; to worms, my mother and my sister.

Revised Standard Version
if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother,' or 'My sister,'

Young's Literal Translation
To corruption I have called: -- `Thou [art] my father.' `My mother' and `my sister' -- to the worm.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
If I call to the pit, 'You are my father'; To the worm, 'my mother and my sister';

Contextual Overview

¹⁰ "But come on, all of you, and try to prove me wrong. I don't find any of you to be wise. ¹¹ My life is passing away, and my plans are destroyed. My hope is gone. ¹² Everything is confused— night is day, and evening comes when it should be dawn. ¹³ "I might hope for the grave to be my new home. I might hope to make my bed in the dark grave. ¹⁴ I might say to the grave, ‘You are my father,' and to the worms, ‘my mother' or ‘my sister.' ¹⁵ But you can't really call that hope, can you? Does anyone see any hope for me? ¹⁶ Will hope go down with me to the place of death? Will we go down into the dirt together?"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

said: Heb. cried, or, called

corruption: Job 21:32, Job 21:33, Psalms 16:10, Psalms 49:9, Acts 2:27-31, Acts 13:34-37, 1 Corinthians 15:42, 1 Corinthians 15:53, 1 Corinthians 15:54

to the worm: Job 19:26, Job 24:20, Isaiah 14:11

Reciprocal: Job 6:8 - the thing that I long for Job 6:11 - What Job 7:5 - flesh Job 7:21 - sleep Job 10:9 - into dust again Job 17:1 - the graves Job 21:26 - the worms Job 30:29 - a brother Job 36:20 - Desire Psalms 49:14 - they Proverbs 7:4 - Thou Acts 13:36 - and saw

Cross-References

Genesis 17:2
If you do this, I will prepare an agreement between us. I will promise to make your people a great nation."

Genesis 17:12
When the baby boy is eight days old, you will circumcise him. Every boy born among your people and every boy who is a slave of your people must be circumcised.

Genesis 17:20
"You mentioned Ishmael, and I heard you. I will bless him, and he will have many children. He will be the father of twelve great leaders. His family will become a great nation.

Genesis 17:21
But I will make my agreement with Isaac, the son who Sarah will have. He will be born at this same time next year."

Genesis 17:24
Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised.

Genesis 17:26
Abraham and his son were circumcised on the same day.

Exodus 12:15
For this festival you will eat bread made without yeast for seven days. On the first day, you will remove all the yeast from your houses. No one should eat any yeast for the full seven days of this festival. Anyone who eats yeast must be separated from the rest of Israel.

Exodus 12:19
For seven days, there must not be any yeast in your houses. Anyone, either a citizen of Israel or a foreigner living among you, who eats yeast at this time must be separated from the rest of Israel.

Exodus 30:33
Whoever makes a perfume like that and puts it on anyone except a priest must be separated from the people."

Exodus 30:38
There may be people who will want to make some of this incense for themselves so that they can enjoy the smell. But whoever does this must be separated from their people."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I have said to corruption, thou [art] my father,.... Not to the corruptible seed, of which he was begotten; nor to the corruption or purulent matter of his boils and ulcers, and the worms his flesh was now clothed with, Job 7:5; but to that corruption his body would turn to in the grave, lying long enough to see it, which Christ's body did not, Psalms 16:10; that is, "to the pit of corruption" c, as it may be rendered, meaning the grave, so called because in it dead bodies corrupt and putrefy: in houses are families consisting of various persons, of different relations, who dwell together in friendship and harmony, very lovingly and familiarly, as father and mother, brother and sister; so in the grave, the dwelling house of men, there are inhabitants that dwell together, as if they were familiar friends and acquaintance; and with these, Job claims kindred, such as corruption, rottenness, dust and worms, and these he speaks unto, not only very familiarly, but very respectfully; the note of Bar Tzemach is,

"I honour the grave as a son a father, that it may receive me quickly;''

yea, he speaks as not ashamed of the relation, but is fond of it; "I called" or "cried" d that is, aloud, with great vehemency and affection:

to the worm, [thou art] my mother and my sister; these are the rather mentioned, because the relation is near, and they are very loving and tender, and abide in the house, see Proverbs 7:4; he calls these his mother and sister, as the above Jewish commentator observes, because the might lie in their bosom; by all this Job would represent how familiar death and the grave were to him, and how little he dreaded them; yea, how desirable they were to him, since he should be at home, and among his relations and friends.

c לשחת "foveam", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Drusius, c. d קראתי "vocavi", Montanus "clamavi", Mercerus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have said - Margin, cried, or called. The sense is, “I say,” or “I thus address the grave.”

To corruption - The word used here (שׁחת shachath) means properly a pit, or pit-fall, Psalms 7:15; Psalms 9:15; a cistern, or a ditch, Job 9:31; or the sepulchre, or grave, Psalms 30:9; Job 33:18, Job 33:30. The Septuagint renders it here by θανάτον thanaton - death. Jerome (Vulgate), putredini dixi. According to Gesenius (Lex), the word never has the sense of corruption. Schultens, however, Rosenmuller, and others, understand it in the sense of corruption or putrefaction. This accords, certainly, with the other hemistich, and better constitutes a parallelism with the “worm” than the word “grave” would. It seems probable that this is the sense here; and if the proper meaning of the word is a pit, or the grave, it here denotes the grave, as containing a dead and moulderling body.

Thou art my father - “I am nearly allied to it. I sustain to it a relation like that of a child to a father.” The idea seems to be that of family likeness; and the object is to present the most striking and impressive view of his sad and sorrowful condition. He was so diseased, so wretched, so full of sores and of corruption (see Job 7:5), that he might be said to be the child of one mouldering in the grave, and was kindred to a family in the tomb!

To the worm - The worm that feeds upon the dead. He belonged to that sad family where the body was putrifying, and where it was covered with worms; see the notes at Isaiah 14:11.

My mother - I am so nearly allied to the worms, that the connection may be compared to that between a mother and her son.

And my sister - “The sister here is mentioned rather than the brother, because the noun rendered worm in the Hebrew, is in the feminine gender.” Rosenmuller. The sense of the whole is, that Job felt that he belonged to the grave. He was destined to corruption. He was soon to lie down with the dead. His acquaintance and kindred were there. So corrupt was his body, so afflicted and diseased, that he seemed to belong to the family of the putrifying, and of those covered with worms! What an impressive description; and yet how true is it of all! The most vigorous frame, the most beautiful and graceful form, the most brilliant complexion, has a near relationship to the worm, and will soon belong to the mouldering family beneath the ground! Christian reader! such are you; such am I. Well, let it be so. Let us not repine. Be the grave our home; be the mouldering people there our parents, and brothers, and sisters. Be our alliance with the worms. There is a brighter scene beyond - a world where we shall be kindred with the angels, and ranked among the sons of God. In that world we shall be clothed with immortal youth, and shall know corruption no more. Then our eyes will shine with undiminished brilliancy forever; our cheeks glow with immortal health; our hearts beat with the pulsations of eternal life. Then our hands shall be feeble and our knees totter with disease or age no more; and then the current of health and joy shall flow on through our veins forever and eye! Allied now to worms we are, but we are allied to the angels too; the grave is to be our home, but so also is heaven; the worm is our brother, but so also is the Son of God! Such is man; such are his prospects here, such his hopes and destiny in the world to come. He dies here, but he lives in glory and honor hereafter forever.

Shall man, O God of light and life,

For ever moulder in the grave?

Canst thou forget thy glorious work,

Thy promise and thy power to save?

Shall life revisit dying worms,

And spread the joyful insects’ wing;

And O shall man awake no more,

To see thy face, thy name to sing?

Faith sees the bright, eternal doors,

Unfold to make her children way;

They shall be clothed with endless life,

And shine in everlasting day.

The trump shall sound, the dead shall wake,

From the cold tomb the slumberers spring;

Through heaven with joy these myriads rise,

And hail their Savior and their King.

Dr. Dwight

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 17:14. I have said to corruption — I came from a corrupted stock, and I must go to corruption again. The Hebrew might be thus rendered: To the ditch I have called, Thou art my father. To the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. I am in the nearest state of affinity to dissolution and corruption: I may well call them my nearest relations, as I shall soon be blended with them.