They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
To go down to the bars of the pit is to descend into sheol, the grave beneath the earth where the dead are held confined until they are raised. It is the common, quiet resting place where all alike lie together in the dust, removed from life's cares and turmoil. There death is an unconscious sleep without work, knowledge, remembrance, or praise, for thoughts have perished and conscious life is silent. The dead do not live on elsewhere as immortal souls apart from the body, nor pass at once to heaven or to torment in hell. The grave is only the place of waiting, where the body decays yet hope looks beyond the gloom to the latter-day coming of the living Redeemer to call forth His own in the resurrection change from mortality to immortality.
Words and Historical Setting
The word rendered pit is the Hebrew sheol, elsewhere rendered grave or hell. It is one of sixty-five uses of sheol in the Old Testament, rendered thirty-one times as grave, three times as pit, and thirty-one times as hell. Sheol is the Old Testament term for what the New Testament calls hades, meaning the grave or common place of the dead, the pit or state of the dead where the dead go down and share rest together in the dust.
The bars of the pit are poetic language for sheol as the hollow place under the earth. They picture confinement below, not above, where the dead go down and are held until they are raised. The pit is the underground abode of the dead, a place of silence, secrecy, darkness, corruption, and death, where there is no work, device, knowledge, nor wisdom. It is the silent state of death where people are silent and unconscious, asleep with perished thoughts, not a realm of living, conscious spirits communicating with the living.
The verse belongs to Job's reply, in which he protests his innocence and expresses a desire for death, speaking of going down to the pit and sharing rest in the dust. It is part of the arguments or colloquies between Job and his three friends in chapters 3-31 on the cause and object of human suffering, and must be studied as part of the whole book rather than taken alone. Job speaks from his limited standpoint, knowing his own integrity yet unable to understand God's dealings with him without charging God foolishly. God saw the end from the beginning and was working out what would glorify Himself, give comfort and hope to suffering ones, and prove a blessing to Job.
Nature of the Grave
The grave is the house of the dead and the bed made in darkness, where hope goes down to the bars of the pit and all alike come to rest together in the dust. Its general character is silence, secrecy, sleep, rest, darkness, corruption and worms, with no praise, remembrance, or conscious activity. It is the place where the dead go down and wait, not a passage at death to heaven or to hell. There they remain without knowledge in darkness and silence until the resurrection.
In that house the condition is darkness and bodily corruption, resting in the dust while waiting for the appointed change. The dead make their bed in darkness, call corruption father and the worm mother and sister, and lie surrounded by worms. They are not in heaven nor in hell but in the dust of the earth, mingled with the clods of the valley, where without a resurrection they would forever lie.
Going down to the bars of the pit is a shared rest together in the dust, the common dwelling of the dead while they wait for their appointed change. Good and bad alike return to the grave at death, before the resurrection and the giving of rewards. It is a quiet resting place where all lie in the dust, removed from life's cares and turmoil until the time when God calls them forth in judgment and resurrection. Death there is not a mere transition in which the real person continues living elsewhere.
Sleep Without Consciousness
Death in the grave is an inactive, unconscious sleep without work, device, knowledge, or wisdom, and its general character is silence, secrecy, rest, darkness, corruption and worms. There is no praise, remembrance, or conscious activity there, for the dead are asleep, their thoughts have perished, and their rest together in the dust is undisturbed repose until God calls them to answer. The bars of the pit hold all alike below in a shared rest, where hope goes down with them to lie together in the dust in darkness and corruption.
Death is not merely a transition in which the real person continues living elsewhere, nor a gateway to conscious life or bliss at death. Those who go down to the pit are not living immortal souls apart from the body or living spirits, but lie in dust and corruption in the house and bed made in darkness, waiting for the change to come. Human life ends in the grave, gloomy and an enemy that comes because of sin, and the dead remain there until God raises them and calls them forth.
Sheol concerns death, not conscious torment in hell nor immediate passage to heaven, for the dead are not in heaven nor in hell but in the dust of the earth. It is the silent place of the dead below, with bars, where conscious human life is silent, implying the end of earthly life and the destruction of being. The dead there sleep in the dust rather than remain conscious, and they do not consciously converse or communicate with the living.
Waiting for Resurrection Hope
The grave is the place of waiting, not the place where hope is fulfilled, for the dead rest together in the dust until the appointed change comes. Job makes the grave his house while he waits, lying in darkness and corruption among worms, and his waiting lasts all the days of his appointed time till that change, which is the resurrection change from mortality to immortality. Death brings him and others down to the pit to rest together, but it does not give him what he hopes for, since his hope is realized only when he is raised to see God in his flesh.
That hope looks beyond the gloom of the grave to rising when the living Redeemer comes at the latter-day advent to call him forth. Death is gloomy and an enemy that comes because of sin, ending present earthly life rather than opening a passage into conscious life or bliss, yet the patriarch's hope is not lost because he expects to be called back to life. He faces death as a period of quiet unconsciousness awaiting that appointed time, and neither the decay of the body nor the corruption of the grave prevents his expectation of seeing God again in his flesh.
The dead remain in the dust until God by His resurrection power calls them forth and raises them, for recovery from that condition of darkness and silence depends wholly on that power. Good and bad alike return to the grave before the resurrection and the giving of rewards, resting together in the dust of the earth rather than dwelling consciously in heaven or hell. The righteous receive their reward in the judgment at Christ's coming and are not promoted to heaven at death, so that without a resurrection they would forever lie mingled with the clods of the valley. At death man therefore sleeps unconscious in the grave instead of living on as a spirit, which shows angels to be an entirely different, higher order of beings who dwell with God and behold His face, while dead men do not behold God's face until Christ comes to raise them.
To go down to the bars of the pit is to descend into sheol, the grave beneath the earth where the dead are held confined until they are raised. It is the common, quiet resting place where all alike lie together in the dust, removed from life's cares and turmoil. There death is an unconscious sleep without work, knowledge, remembrance, or praise, for thoughts have perished and conscious life is silent. The dead do not live on elsewhere as immortal souls apart from the body, nor pass at once to heaven or to torment in hell. The grave is only the place of waiting, where the body decays yet hope looks beyond the gloom to the latter-day coming of the living Redeemer to call forth His own in the resurrection change from mortality to immortality.
Words and Historical Setting
The word rendered pit is the Hebrew sheol, elsewhere rendered grave or hell. It is one of sixty-five uses of sheol in the Old Testament, rendered thirty-one times as grave, three times as pit, and thirty-one times as hell. Sheol is the Old Testament term for what the New Testament calls hades, meaning the grave or common place of the dead, the pit or state of the dead where the dead go down and share rest together in the dust.
The bars of the pit are poetic language for sheol as the hollow place under the earth. They picture confinement below, not above, where the dead go down and are held until they are raised. The pit is the underground abode of the dead, a place of silence, secrecy, darkness, corruption, and death, where there is no work, device, knowledge, nor wisdom. It is the silent state of death where people are silent and unconscious, asleep with perished thoughts, not a realm of living, conscious spirits communicating with the living.
The verse belongs to Job's reply, in which he protests his innocence and expresses a desire for death, speaking of going down to the pit and sharing rest in the dust. It is part of the arguments or colloquies between Job and his three friends in chapters 3-31 on the cause and object of human suffering, and must be studied as part of the whole book rather than taken alone. Job speaks from his limited standpoint, knowing his own integrity yet unable to understand God's dealings with him without charging God foolishly. God saw the end from the beginning and was working out what would glorify Himself, give comfort and hope to suffering ones, and prove a blessing to Job.
Nature of the Grave
The grave is the house of the dead and the bed made in darkness, where hope goes down to the bars of the pit and all alike come to rest together in the dust. Its general character is silence, secrecy, sleep, rest, darkness, corruption and worms, with no praise, remembrance, or conscious activity. It is the place where the dead go down and wait, not a passage at death to heaven or to hell. There they remain without knowledge in darkness and silence until the resurrection.
In that house the condition is darkness and bodily corruption, resting in the dust while waiting for the appointed change. The dead make their bed in darkness, call corruption father and the worm mother and sister, and lie surrounded by worms. They are not in heaven nor in hell but in the dust of the earth, mingled with the clods of the valley, where without a resurrection they would forever lie.
Going down to the bars of the pit is a shared rest together in the dust, the common dwelling of the dead while they wait for their appointed change. Good and bad alike return to the grave at death, before the resurrection and the giving of rewards. It is a quiet resting place where all lie in the dust, removed from life's cares and turmoil until the time when God calls them forth in judgment and resurrection. Death there is not a mere transition in which the real person continues living elsewhere.
Sleep Without Consciousness
Death in the grave is an inactive, unconscious sleep without work, device, knowledge, or wisdom, and its general character is silence, secrecy, rest, darkness, corruption and worms. There is no praise, remembrance, or conscious activity there, for the dead are asleep, their thoughts have perished, and their rest together in the dust is undisturbed repose until God calls them to answer. The bars of the pit hold all alike below in a shared rest, where hope goes down with them to lie together in the dust in darkness and corruption.
Death is not merely a transition in which the real person continues living elsewhere, nor a gateway to conscious life or bliss at death. Those who go down to the pit are not living immortal souls apart from the body or living spirits, but lie in dust and corruption in the house and bed made in darkness, waiting for the change to come. Human life ends in the grave, gloomy and an enemy that comes because of sin, and the dead remain there until God raises them and calls them forth.
Sheol concerns death, not conscious torment in hell nor immediate passage to heaven, for the dead are not in heaven nor in hell but in the dust of the earth. It is the silent place of the dead below, with bars, where conscious human life is silent, implying the end of earthly life and the destruction of being. The dead there sleep in the dust rather than remain conscious, and they do not consciously converse or communicate with the living.
Waiting for Resurrection Hope
The grave is the place of waiting, not the place where hope is fulfilled, for the dead rest together in the dust until the appointed change comes. Job makes the grave his house while he waits, lying in darkness and corruption among worms, and his waiting lasts all the days of his appointed time till that change, which is the resurrection change from mortality to immortality. Death brings him and others down to the pit to rest together, but it does not give him what he hopes for, since his hope is realized only when he is raised to see God in his flesh.
That hope looks beyond the gloom of the grave to rising when the living Redeemer comes at the latter-day advent to call him forth. Death is gloomy and an enemy that comes because of sin, ending present earthly life rather than opening a passage into conscious life or bliss, yet the patriarch's hope is not lost because he expects to be called back to life. He faces death as a period of quiet unconsciousness awaiting that appointed time, and neither the decay of the body nor the corruption of the grave prevents his expectation of seeing God again in his flesh.
The dead remain in the dust until God by His resurrection power calls them forth and raises them, for recovery from that condition of darkness and silence depends wholly on that power. Good and bad alike return to the grave before the resurrection and the giving of rewards, resting together in the dust of the earth rather than dwelling consciously in heaven or hell. The righteous receive their reward in the judgment at Christ's coming and are not promoted to heaven at death, so that without a resurrection they would forever lie mingled with the clods of the valley. At death man therefore sleeps unconscious in the grave instead of living on as a spirit, which shows angels to be an entirely different, higher order of beings who dwell with God and behold His face, while dead men do not behold God's face until Christ comes to raise them.