Lectionary Calendar
Monday, November 25th, 2024
the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Read the Bible

King James Version

Job 16:22

When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Death;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Death, Natural;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Hell;  

Encyclopedias:

- The Jewish Encyclopedia - Euphemism;  

Parallel Translations

New Living Translation
For soon I must go down that road from which I will never return.
English Revised Version
For when a few years are come, I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
Update Bible Version
For when a few years have come, I shall go the way from where I shall not return.
New Century Version
"Only a few years will pass before I go on the journey of no return.
New English Translation
For the years that lie ahead are few, and then I will go on the way of no return.
Webster's Bible Translation
When a few years are come, then I shall go the way [whence] I shall not return.
World English Bible
For when a few years are come, I shall go the way from whence I shall not return.
Amplified Bible
"For when a few years are past, I shall go the way of no return.
English Standard Version
For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
`For lo! schorte yeeris passen, and Y go a path, bi which Y schal not turne ayen.
Berean Standard Bible
For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.
Contemporary English Version
Because in only a few years, I will be dead and gone.
American Standard Version
For when a few years are come, I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
Bible in Basic English
For in a short time I will take the journey from which I will not come back.
Complete Jewish Bible
For I have but few years left before I leave on the road of no return.
Darby Translation
For years [few] in number shall pass,—and I shall go the way [whence] I shall not return.
Easy-to-Read Version
"In only a few years I will go to that place of no return.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For the years that are few are coming on, and I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
King James Version (1611)
When a few yeeres are come, then I shall goe the way whence I shall not returne.
New Life Bible
In a few years I will go the way that I cannot return.
New Revised Standard
For when a few years have come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For the yeeres accounted come, and I shal go the way, whence I shall not returne.
George Lamsa Translation
For the number of a mans years will come to an end; then he shall go the way from whence he shall not return.
Good News Translation
My years are passing now, and I walk the road of no return.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
When, a few years, come, then, by a path by which I shall not return, shall I depart.
Douay-Rheims Bible
(16-23) For behold short years pass away, and I am walking in a path by which I shall not return.
Revised Standard Version
For when a few years have come I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Yet the number of my yeres is come, and the way that I must go is at hand, from whence I shall not turne againe.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Oh that a man might plead before the Lord, even as the son of man with his neighbor!
Christian Standard Bible®
For only a few years will passbefore I go the way of no return.
Hebrew Names Version
For when a few years are come, I shall go the way from whence I shall not return.
Lexham English Bible
Indeed, after a few years have come, then I will go the way from which I will not return.
Literal Translation
For years few in number will come; and I shall not return the way I shall go.
Young's Literal Translation
When a few years do come, Then a path I return not do I go.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
yet the nombre of my yeares are come, & I must go the waye, from whence I shal not turne agayne.
New American Standard Bible
"For when a few years are past, I shall go the way of no return.
New King James Version
For when a few years are finished, I shall go the way of no return.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For when a few years are past, I shall go the way of no return.
Legacy Standard Bible
For when a few years are past,I shall go the way of no return.

Contextual Overview

17 Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure. 18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place. 19 Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. 20 My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. 21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour! 22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a few years: Heb. years of number, Job 14:5, Job 14:14

whence: Job 7:9, Job 7:10, Job 14:10, Ecclesiastes 12:5

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 2:2 - I go Job 4:20 - they perish Job 7:6 - swifter

Gill's Notes on the Bible

When a few years are come,.... As the years of man's life are but few at most, and Job's years, which were yet to come, still fewer in his apprehension; or "years of number" m, that are numbered by God, fixed and determined by him, Job 14:5; or being few are easily numbered:

then I shall go the way [whence] I shall not return; that is, go the way of all flesh, a long journey; death itself is meant, which is a going out of this world into another, from whence there is no return to this again, to the same place, condition, circumstances, estate, and employment as now; otherwise there will be a resurrection from the dead, the bodies will rise out of the earth, and souls will be brought again to be united with them, but not to be in the same situation here as now: this Job observes either as a kind of solace to him under all his afflictions on himself, and from his friends, that in a little time it would be all over with him; or as an argument to hasten the pleading of his cause, that his innocence might be cleared before he died; and if this was not done quickly, it would be too late.

m שנות מספר "anni numeri", Montanus, Vatablus, Bolducius; "numbered days", Broughton; so Tigurine version.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

When a few years are come - Margin “years of number;” that is, numbered years, or a few years. The same idea is expressed in Job 7:21; see the notes at that place. The idea is, that he must soon die. He desired, therefore, before he went down to the grave, to carry his cause before God, and to have, as he did not doubt he should have, the divine attestation in his favor; compare the notes at Job 19:25-27. Now he was overwhelmed with calamities and reproaches, and was about to die in this condition. He did not wish to die thus. He wished that the reproaches might be wiped off, and that his character might be cleared up and made fair. He believed assuredly that if he could be permitted to carry his cause directly before God, he might be able to vindicate his character, and to obtain the divine verdict in his favor; and if he obtained that, he was not unwilling to die. It is the expression of such a wish as every man has, that his sun may not go down under a cloud; that whatever aspersions may rest on his character may be wiped away; and that his name, if remembered at all when he is dead, may go untarnished down to future times, and be such that his friends may repeat it without a blush.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 16:22. When a few years are come — I prefer Mr. Good's version: -

"But the years numbered to me are come.

And I must go the way whence I shall not return."


Job could not, in his present circumstances, expect a few years of longer life; from his own conviction he was expecting death every hour. The next verse, the first of the following chapter, should come in here:

My breath is corrupt, c. — He felt himself as in the arms of death: he saw the grave as already digged which was to receive his dead body. This verse shows that our translation of the twenty-second verse is improper, and vindicates Mr. Good's version.

I HAVE said on Job 16:9 that a part of Job's sufferings probably arose from appalling representations made to his eye or to his imagination by Satan and his agents. I think this neither irrational nor improbable. That he and his demons have power to make themselves manifest on especial occasions, has been credited in all ages of the world not by the weak, credulous, and superstitious only, but also by the wisest, the most learned, and the best of men. I am persuaded that many passages in the Book of Job refer to this, and admit of an easy interpretation on this ground.


 
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