Job 16:22 kjv
When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
Job 16:22 nkjv
For when a few years are finished, I shall go the way of no return.
Job 16:22 niv
"Only a few years will pass before I take the path of no return.
Job 16:22 esv
For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
Job 16:22 nlt
For soon I must go down that road
from which I will never return.
Job 16 22 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Sam 12:23 | But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. | Death is a one-way journey. |
| Ecc 9:10 | Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave where you are going. | No return or activity from the grave. |
| Ps 49:10-12 | For he sees that even wise men die... They leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever. | All mortals face the grave; finality. |
| Ps 89:48 | What man can live and not see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? | Inescapable power of death. |
| Isa 38:11 | I will not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living; I will observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world. | Hezekiah's lament, facing death's finality. |
| Ps 103:15-16 | As for man, his days are like grass... the wind passes over it, and it is gone. | Brevity and ephemerality of human life. |
| Ps 39:4-5 | Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You. | Life's brevity, God's eternal perspective. |
| Ps 90:10 | The days of our years are seventy, or by reason of strength eighty; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for soon it is cut off, and we fly away. | Shortness of life and swift passing. |
| Jas 4:14 | For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. | Life is brief and fleeting. |
| 1 Chron 29:15 | For we are sojourners before You and tenants, as were all our fathers; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope. | Temporary earthly existence. |
| Ps 144:4 | Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow. | Human existence as transient. |
| Gen 47:9 | Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life.” | Patriarchal lament on life's perceived brevity. |
| Ps 6:5 | For in death there is no remembrance of You; in Sheol who will give You thanks? | Limited understanding of the afterlife's praise. |
| Ps 115:17 | The dead do not praise the LORD, nor any who go down into silence. | Sheol as a place of silence and inactivity. |
| Job 19:25-27 | For I know that my Redeemer lives... though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. | Future hope of resurrection (later in Job). |
| Dan 12:2 | And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. | Prophetic promise of resurrection. |
| Jn 5:28-29 | Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth. | Jesus' teaching on general resurrection. |
| 1 Cor 15:52-54 | For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible... Death is swallowed up in victory. | New Testament fulfillment in Christ. |
| Php 3:20-21 | For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior... who will transform our lowly body. | Hope of bodily transformation. |
| Rev 21:4 | And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death. | Final victory over death. |
| Acts 2:24 | Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. | Christ's triumph over death. |
| Heb 9:27 | And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. | The appointed nature of death. |
Job 16 verses
Job 16 22 Meaning
Job 16:22 encapsulates Job's profound despair and his conviction that his death is imminent and irreversible. He believes that the few remaining years of his life will soon pass, after which he will embark on the ultimate journey from which there is no return to earthly existence. It reflects a human perspective on mortality, viewing death as a final, one-way path, particularly prevalent in the Old Testament understanding of the grave, or Sheol, before the fuller revelation of bodily resurrection.
Job 16 22 Context
Job 16:22 is found within Job's third response to his friends' accusations. In this chapter, Job articulates his deep distress, lamenting his severe suffering and how his friends have only added to his torment. He perceives God as his antagonist, crushing him without cause (vv. 7-14). He expresses his desire for an advocate in heaven, a witness who knows his innocence (vv. 18-21). His declaration in verse 22 serves as the culminating thought of this lament, signifying his profound sense of abandonment and his belief that death is his inevitable and imminent escape, an end from which he anticipates no earthly return. His understanding of life and death is typical of the Old Testament perspective before the full revelation of resurrection.
Job 16 22 Word analysis
- For when: The Hebrew term "כִּי" (ki) introduces a logical consequence or a reason. Here, it connects Job's profound sense of despair and the inevitability of his fate to the lament he has been expressing.
- a few years: The Hebrew "שְׁנוֹת מִסְפָּר" (sh'not mispar) literally translates to "years of number" or "counted years." This idiom suggests a limited, definite, and inherently short period. Job views his remaining time on earth as exceedingly brief and easily numbered.
- are come: Implies the rapid passing of time and the nearing completion of this brief lifespan. It underscores Job's perception that his end is close.
- then I shall go: The verb "אֶתְהַלֵּךְ" (et·hal·leḵ) is from the root "הָלַךְ" (halakh), meaning "to walk" or "to go." Here, it refers to his passage into death, a final departure. The future tense highlights the certainty of this event for him.
- the way: The Hebrew "אֹרַח" (o·raḥ) means "a path" or "a road." This is a common metaphor in biblical literature for a course of life or action, but here it specifically designates the journey into death, into Sheol.
- whence I shall not return: The Hebrew "לֹא אָשׁוּב" (lo a·shuv) is an emphatic negation meaning "not return." This phrase forms a potent idiom for death, underscoring its finality and irreversibility from an earthly, mortal standpoint. For Job, death offers no prospect of returning to his life, his home, or his former state of well-being.
- "a few years are come": This phrase conveys a deep sense of the brevity and fragility of human life, seen through Job's eyes. It suggests that his appointed time is nearly complete, amplifying his feelings of hopelessness and desperation.
- "I shall go the way whence I shall not return": This common biblical idiom distinctly refers to the finality of death. It paints a picture of a journey into an unknown realm—Sheol—from which there is no comeback to the land of the living, encapsulating Job's complete surrender to his perceived inevitable and terminal fate.
Job 16 22 Bonus section
This verse powerfully reflects Job's limited understanding of God's eternal plan concerning life beyond death. In ancient Israelite thought, the concept of a definitive personal resurrection as understood later was still developing. Job's despair is a candid expression of the pre-Messianic view that one's earthly life was ultimately finite, and physical existence in Sheol was not characterized by praise or interaction. This perception is overcome by the ultimate work of Christ, who opened "the way" to an everlasting life and a future resurrection for believers, fulfilling what was only dimly perceived in Job's time.
Job 16 22 Commentary
Job 16:22 reveals the raw anguish of Job, whose understanding of the afterlife, at this point, is bound by the typical Old Testament conception of Sheol as a realm of no return for the physical body. His statement is a testament to the universality of death, a journey that all humanity must take, and from which no one returns to their earthly life. This declaration marks the depth of his despair, seeing no reprieve or reversal of his suffering in this life. While profoundly sorrowful, it also sets the stage for the progressive revelation of God's greater redemptive plan, hinting at a future hope of resurrection that Job himself will later grasp (Job 19:25-27), fully unveiled in the New Testament through Christ's victory over death.