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Tuesday, August 19th, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

New Century Version

Job 17:13

If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in darkness,

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Dead (People);   Death;   Despondency;   Hell;   Thompson Chain Reference - Grave, the;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Beds;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Sheol;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Burial;   Sheol;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Darkness;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Suretiship;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Darkness;   Hell;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bed;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Bed;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
If I await Sheol as my home,spread out my bed in darkness,
Hebrew Names Version
If I look for She'ol as my house, If I have spread my couch in the darkness,
King James Version
If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
English Standard Version
If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness,
New English Translation
If I hope for the grave to be my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
Amplified Bible
"But if I look to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) as my home, If I make my bed in the darkness,
New American Standard Bible
"If I hope for Sheol as my home, I make my bed in the darkness;
World English Bible
If I look for Sheol as my house, If I have spread my couch in the darkness,
Geneva Bible (1587)
Though I hope, yet the graue shall bee mine house, and I shal make my bed in the darke.
Legacy Standard Bible
If I hope for Sheol as my home,I make my bed in the darkness;
Berean Standard Bible
If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
Contemporary English Version
I could tell the world below to prepare me a bed.
Complete Jewish Bible
"If I hope for Sh'ol to be my house; if I spread my couch in the dark;
Darby Translation
If I wait, Sheol is my house; I spread my bed in the darkness:
Easy-to-Read Version
"I might hope for the grave to be my new home. I might hope to make my bed in the dark grave.
George Lamsa Translation
If I wait, Sheol is my house; I have made my bed in the darkness.
Good News Translation
My only hope is the world of the dead, where I will lie down to sleep in the dark.
Lexham English Bible
If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in the darkness,
Literal Translation
If I wait for Sheol as my house, I have spread out my bed in the darkness;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Though I tary neuer so moch, yet the graue is my house, and I must make my bed in the darcke.
American Standard Version
If I look for Sheol as my house; If I have spread my couch in the darkness;
Bible in Basic English
If I am waiting for the underworld as my house, if I have made my bed in the dark;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
If I look for the nether-world as my house; if I have spread my couch in the darkness;
King James Version (1611)
If I waite, the graue is mine house: I haue made my bedde in the darknesse.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Though I tary neuer so much, yet the graue is my house, & I haue made my bed in the darke.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For if I remain, Hades is my habitation: and my bed has been made in darkness.
English Revised Version
If I look for Sheol as mine house; if I have spread my couch in the darkness;
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If Y `susteyne, ether suffre pacientli, helle is myn hous; and Y haue arayede my bed in derknessis.
Update Bible Version
If I look for Sheol as my house; If I have spread my couch in the darkness;
Webster's Bible Translation
If I wait, the grave [is] my house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
New King James Version
If I wait for the grave as my house, If I make my bed in the darkness,
New Living Translation
What if I go to the grave and make my bed in darkness?
New Life Bible
If I look for the place of the dead as my home, I make my bed in the darkness.
New Revised Standard
If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness,
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If I wait for hades as my house, in darkness, have spread out my couch;
Douay-Rheims Bible
If I wait hell is my house, and I have made my bed in darkness.
Revised Standard Version
If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness,
Young's Literal Translation
If I wait -- Sheol [is] my house, In darkness I have spread out my couch.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"If I look for Sheol as my home, I make my bed in the darkness;

Contextual Overview

10 "But, all of you, come and try again! I do not find a wise person among you. 11 My days are gone, and my plans have been destroyed, along with the desires of my heart. 12 These men think night is day; when it is dark, they say, ‘Light is near.' 13 If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in darkness, 14 if I say to the grave, ‘You are my father,' and to the worm, ‘You are my mother' or ‘You are my sister,' 15 where, then, is my hope? Who can see any hope for me? 16 Will hope go down to the gates of death? Will we go down together into the dust?"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

If I wait: Job 14:14, Psalms 27:14, Lamentations 3:25, Lamentations 3:26

the grave: Job 17:1, Job 10:21, Job 10:22, Job 30:23

I have made: Psalms 139:8, Isaiah 57:2

Reciprocal: Genesis 3:19 - and Job 14:10 - man Job 33:22 - his soul Job 36:20 - Desire Psalms 49:14 - they Ecclesiastes 3:20 - go Ecclesiastes 12:5 - because Isaiah 14:11 - the worm

Cross-References

Genesis 14:14
When Abram learned that Lot had been captured, he called out his 318 trained men who had been born in his camp. He led the men and chased the enemy all the way to the town of Dan.
Genesis 15:3
Abram said, "Look, you have given me no son, so a slave born in my house will inherit everything I have."
Genesis 37:27
Let's sell him to these Ishmaelites. Then we will not be guilty of killing our own brother. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." And the other brothers agreed.
Genesis 37:36
Meanwhile the Midianites who had bought Joseph had taken him to Egypt. There they sold him to Potiphar, an officer to the king of Egypt and captain of the palace guard.
Genesis 39:1
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar was an officer to the king of Egypt and the captain of the palace guard. He bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.
Exodus 12:44
If someone buys a slave and circumcises him, the slave may eat the Passover.
Exodus 21:2
"If you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve you for six years. In the seventh year you are to set him free, and he will have to pay nothing.
Exodus 21:4
If the slave's master gives him a wife, and she gives birth to sons or daughters, the woman and her children will belong to the master. When the slave is set free, only he may leave.
Exodus 21:16
"Anyone who kidnaps someone and either sells him as a slave or still has him when he is caught must be put to death.
Nehemiah 5:5
We are just like our fellow Jews, and our sons are like their sons. But we have to sell our sons and daughters as slaves. Some of our daughters have already been sold. But there is nothing we can do, because our fields and vineyards already belong to other people."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If I wait, the grave [is] mine house,.... Not that Job put an "if" upon, or made a doubt of waiting upon God in private or public; or of waiting for him, his gracious appearances to him, answers of prayer, performance of promises, and deliverance out of trouble; and especially of waiting his appointed time till his change came, and hoping and expecting eternal life and happiness; all which he determined to do, and did, see Job 13:15; but he says this with respect to the advice of his friends, which should it be taken, the issue of would be no other than what he here suggests; they had intimated, that if he repented and reformed, he might hope for and expect a peaceable tabernacle, and a prosperous habitation, a line house, and affluent circumstances, Job 5:24. Now, says he, should I listen to this, and endeavour to cherish some hope and expectation of small things, and put myself in a waiting posture for them, alas! how soon would it be over, for what other house can I rationally expect but the grave? and this is what I have upon; I think of no other house than that, which is man's long home, the house appointed for all living; there I shall dwell, and make my abode until the morning of the resurrection, and I look for no other; and if I should, I am well assured! should be disappointed:

I have made my bed in the darkness: in the dark grave, where the light of the body is extinct, and where the light of the sun comes not; in houses there are various apartments, some for work and business, as is the shop; others for eating and drinking, as the dining room; and others for sleep and rest, as the bedchamber; now in the house of the grave there is no mention of any but the latter; for there is no work and device in the grave, nor eating and drinking there; but it is a bed where the weary saint lies down and rests upon from all his toil and labour, until he awakes at the resurrection: now Job had settled the matter with himself, he had laid it out in his own mind, and taken a kind of pleasure in the prospect of it; that he had got a house to move into, when he was dislodged from the earthly house of his tabernacle, and where he had made himself, in his own thought, an easy bed, on which he should lay his weary limbs, and take his sleep and rest, until the heavens be no more.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If I wait - Or more accurately, “truly I expect that the grave will be my home.” The word rendered “if” (אם 'ı̂m) is often used in such a sense. The meaning is, “I look certainly to the grave as my home. I have made up my mind to it, and have no other expectation.”

The grave - Hebrew שׁאול she'ôl. It may mean here either the grave, or the region of departed spirits, to which he expected soon to descend.

Mine house - My home; my permanent abode.

I have made my bed - I am certain of making my bed there. I shall soon lie down there.

In the darkness - In the grave, or in the dark world to which it leads; see the notes at Job 10:21-22.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 17:13. The grave is mine house — Let my life be long or short, the grave at last will be my home. I expect soon to lie down in darkness - there is my end: I cannot reasonably hope for any thing else.


 
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