the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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King James Version
Job 17:14
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What if I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;
If I have said to corruption, You are my father; To the worm, [You are] my mother, and my sister;
if I say to the grave, ‘You are my father,' and to the worm, ‘You are my mother' or ‘You are my sister,'
If I cry to corruption, ‘You are my father,' and to the worm, ‘My Mother,' or ‘My sister,'
I have said to corruption, Thou [art] my father: to the worm, [Thou art] my mother, and my sister.
If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;' To the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'
If I call out to the pit (grave), 'You are my father'; And to the worm [that feeds on decay], 'You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you],'
if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,' and to the worm, ‘My mother,' or ‘My sister,'
Y seide to rot, Thou art my fadur; and to wormes, Ye ben my modir and my sister.
and say to corruption, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother,' or 'My sister,'
Then I could greet the grave as my father and say to the worms, "Hello, mother and sisters!"
If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;
If I say to the earth, You are my father; and to the worm, My mother and my sister;
if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,' and to worms, ‘You are my mother and sister,'
I cry to the grave, Thou art my father! to the worm, My mother, and my sister!
I might say to the grave, ‘You are my father,' and to the worms, ‘my mother' or ‘my sister.'
If I have said to corruption: 'Thou art my father', to the worm: 'Thou art my mother, and my sister';
I haue said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worme, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
If I say to the grave, ‘You are my father,' and to the worm, ‘My mother and my sister,'
if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,' and to the worm, ‘My mother,' or ‘My sister,'
I shall say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worme, Thou art my mother and my sister.
I have said to corruption, You are my father; to the worm, You are my mother and my sister.
I will call the grave my father, and the worms that eat me I will call my mother and my sisters.
To corruption, have exclaimed, My father, thou! My mother! and My sister! to the worm.
I have said to rottenness: Thou art my father; to worms, my mother and my sister.
if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother,' or 'My sister,'
I saide to corruption, thou art my father, and to the wormes, you are my mother and my sister.
I have called upon death to be my father, and corruption to be my mother and sister.
and say to corruption, “You are my father,”and to the maggot, “My mother” or “My sister,”
If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;' To the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'
if I call to the pit, ‘You are my father,' to the maggot, ‘You are my mother or my sister,'
I have said to corruption, You are my father; to the worm, My mother and my sister.
To corruption I have called: -- `Thou [art] my father.' `My mother' and `my sister' -- to the worm.
I call corrupcion my father, and the wormes call I my mother and my sister.
If I call to the grave, 'You are my father'; To the maggot, 'my mother and my sister';
If I say to corruption, "You are my father,' And to the worm, "You are my mother and my sister,'
If I call to the pit, 'You are my father'; To the worm, 'my mother and my sister';
If I call to the pit, ‘You are my father';To the worm, ‘my mother and my sister';
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
said: Heb. cried, or, called
corruption: Job 21:32, Job 21:33, Psalms 16:10, Psalms 49:9, Acts 2:27-31, Acts 13:34-37, 1 Corinthians 15:42, 1 Corinthians 15:53, 1 Corinthians 15:54
to the worm: Job 19:26, Job 24:20, Isaiah 14:11
Reciprocal: Job 6:8 - the thing that I long for Job 6:11 - What Job 7:5 - flesh Job 7:21 - sleep Job 10:9 - into dust again Job 17:1 - the graves Job 21:26 - the worms Job 30:29 - a brother Job 36:20 - Desire Psalms 49:14 - they Proverbs 7:4 - Thou Acts 13:36 - and saw
Cross-References
And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.
Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his people.
Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
I have said to corruption, thou [art] my father,.... Not to the corruptible seed, of which he was begotten; nor to the corruption or purulent matter of his boils and ulcers, and the worms his flesh was now clothed with, Job 7:5; but to that corruption his body would turn to in the grave, lying long enough to see it, which Christ's body did not, Psalms 16:10; that is, "to the pit of corruption" c, as it may be rendered, meaning the grave, so called because in it dead bodies corrupt and putrefy: in houses are families consisting of various persons, of different relations, who dwell together in friendship and harmony, very lovingly and familiarly, as father and mother, brother and sister; so in the grave, the dwelling house of men, there are inhabitants that dwell together, as if they were familiar friends and acquaintance; and with these, Job claims kindred, such as corruption, rottenness, dust and worms, and these he speaks unto, not only very familiarly, but very respectfully; the note of Bar Tzemach is,
"I honour the grave as a son a father, that it may receive me quickly;''
yea, he speaks as not ashamed of the relation, but is fond of it; "I called" or "cried" d that is, aloud, with great vehemency and affection:
to the worm, [thou art] my mother and my sister; these are the rather mentioned, because the relation is near, and they are very loving and tender, and abide in the house, see Proverbs 7:4; he calls these his mother and sister, as the above Jewish commentator observes, because the might lie in their bosom; by all this Job would represent how familiar death and the grave were to him, and how little he dreaded them; yea, how desirable they were to him, since he should be at home, and among his relations and friends.
c ×ש×ת "foveam", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Drusius, c. d קר××ª× "vocavi", Montanus "clamavi", Mercerus.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
I have said - Margin, cried, or called. The sense is, âI say,â or âI thus address the grave.â
To corruption - The word used here (ש××ת shachath) means properly a pit, or pit-fall, Psalms 7:15; Psalms 9:15; a cistern, or a ditch, Job 9:31; or the sepulchre, or grave, Psalms 30:9; Job 33:18, Job 33:30. The Septuagint renders it here by θαναÌÏον thanaton - death. Jerome (Vulgate), putredini dixi. According to Gesenius (Lex), the word never has the sense of corruption. Schultens, however, Rosenmuller, and others, understand it in the sense of corruption or putrefaction. This accords, certainly, with the other hemistich, and better constitutes a parallelism with the âwormâ than the word âgraveâ would. It seems probable that this is the sense here; and if the proper meaning of the word is a pit, or the grave, it here denotes the grave, as containing a dead and moulderling body.
Thou art my father - âI am nearly allied to it. I sustain to it a relation like that of a child to a father.â The idea seems to be that of family likeness; and the object is to present the most striking and impressive view of his sad and sorrowful condition. He was so diseased, so wretched, so full of sores and of corruption (see Job 7:5), that he might be said to be the child of one mouldering in the grave, and was kindred to a family in the tomb!
To the worm - The worm that feeds upon the dead. He belonged to that sad family where the body was putrifying, and where it was covered with worms; see the notes at Isaiah 14:11.
My mother - I am so nearly allied to the worms, that the connection may be compared to that between a mother and her son.
And my sister - âThe sister here is mentioned rather than the brother, because the noun rendered worm in the Hebrew, is in the feminine gender.â Rosenmuller. The sense of the whole is, that Job felt that he belonged to the grave. He was destined to corruption. He was soon to lie down with the dead. His acquaintance and kindred were there. So corrupt was his body, so afflicted and diseased, that he seemed to belong to the family of the putrifying, and of those covered with worms! What an impressive description; and yet how true is it of all! The most vigorous frame, the most beautiful and graceful form, the most brilliant complexion, has a near relationship to the worm, and will soon belong to the mouldering family beneath the ground! Christian reader! such are you; such am I. Well, let it be so. Let us not repine. Be the grave our home; be the mouldering people there our parents, and brothers, and sisters. Be our alliance with the worms. There is a brighter scene beyond - a world where we shall be kindred with the angels, and ranked among the sons of God. In that world we shall be clothed with immortal youth, and shall know corruption no more. Then our eyes will shine with undiminished brilliancy forever; our cheeks glow with immortal health; our hearts beat with the pulsations of eternal life. Then our hands shall be feeble and our knees totter with disease or age no more; and then the current of health and joy shall flow on through our veins forever and eye! Allied now to worms we are, but we are allied to the angels too; the grave is to be our home, but so also is heaven; the worm is our brother, but so also is the Son of God! Such is man; such are his prospects here, such his hopes and destiny in the world to come. He dies here, but he lives in glory and honor hereafter forever.
Shall man, O God of light and life,
For ever moulder in the grave?
Canst thou forget thy glorious work,
Thy promise and thy power to save?
Shall life revisit dying worms,
And spread the joyful insectsâ wing;
And O shall man awake no more,
To see thy face, thy name to sing?
Faith sees the bright, eternal doors,
Unfold to make her children way;
They shall be clothed with endless life,
And shine in everlasting day.
The trump shall sound, the dead shall wake,
From the cold tomb the slumberers spring;
Through heaven with joy these myriads rise,
And hail their Savior and their King.
Dr. Dwight
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 17:14. I have said to corruption — I came from a corrupted stock, and I must go to corruption again. The Hebrew might be thus rendered: To the ditch I have called, Thou art my father. To the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. I am in the nearest state of affinity to dissolution and corruption: I may well call them my nearest relations, as I shall soon be blended with them.
