Job 7:21, commentary and pictures

Job pleads for God to pardon his transgression and take away his iniquity before he dies and returns to dust under the penalty that rests on Adam and all his descendants. To sleep in the dust is death itself, lying and resting unconscious in the grave in profound sleep like the righteous asleep in Jesus. In that sleep breath goes out and thought perishes, so the dead know nothing of what goes on around them, with no work, memory, love, hatred, or part in what is done under the sun. To be means to exist, and the same person who sleeps is no longer present as a conscious being, not departed to heaven, hell, hades, Paradise, or another sphere as a spirit beholding God. The dead remain quietly absent in the tomb until the appointed awakening, when Christ descends to raise them at his return, which cuts off all hope of future life except through the resurrection to eternal life.

Setting and Plea

Job 7 stands as Job's reply to Eliphaz's speech urging him not to despise divine chastening, and in that reply Job sets out the justification for his complaints. The verse belongs to the larger debate between Job and his friends over the cause and purpose of human suffering. Within that debate it is Job's plea for God to forgive his sin before death brings his life to an end, and it functions as part of his argument rather than as a claim that every statement in the book is true.

The question pressed is why God does not pardon transgression and remove iniquity before Job sleeps in the dust and is no longer present to be found. Death is thereby presented as sleeping in the dust, a lying down in absence and unconsciousness until the time of resurrection. That death follows upon human transgression as a return to dust, the death penalty incurred by Adam's transgression resting upon Adam and all his descendants.

The hope of again seeing God is therefore tied not to continued conscious existence at death but to the coming of the Redeemer at the latter day. Because people were not created immortal, the Christian hope remains resurrection to eternal life rather than survival apart from it.

Death as Unconscious Sleep

The verse uses sleep as a poetic figure for death, meaning that the dead lie and rest in the dust of the earth, in the grave, in the sleep of death. That sleep is unconscious rest, like profound or sound sleep, in which the dead know nothing of what goes on around them and are without thought or awareness. It is the Bible's regular term for death, with the righteous described as asleep in Jesus.

It means that mortals die, the breath goes out and they return to earth, thoughts perish in that very day, and in that sleep they know nothing, with no work, planning, knowledge, wisdom, memory, reward, love, hatred, envy, or any more part in what is done under the sun. To be means to exist: the transgressor is the same one who sleeps in the dust, and when God seeks him he will no longer be present as a conscious being. The person ceases to exist rather than continuing as separate parts, for there is only one Job.

The verse answers where a person is in death by placing the dead unconscious in the grave, not as departed to heaven, hell, hades, Paradise, another sphere or place, or as spirits beholding God. Death is not the gate of endless life, and this account agrees with the rest of Scripture. At the present time death does not take a person to heaven but puts him to sleep in the dust where he remains and cannot be found, in the same quiet rest shared by kings, counselors, princes, prisoners, small and great.

The dead remain absent, quietly resting in the tomb until the appointed change, awakening, and resurrection. Christ finds them there when he descends to raise them at his return, when the Life-giver brings their reward, in the sequence of dying, sleeping, and being raised. Hope of seeing God is connected to the Redeemer's coming at the latter day. This sleep cuts off all hope of future life except through the resurrection of the dead. People are not created immortal, and the dead remain until awakened rather than living consciously elsewhere or being gone forever, so the Christian hope is resurrection to eternal life.

The verse speaks of death as sleeping in the dust and gives words of comfort to sympathizing friends when a faithful believer dies.