Bible Strands
Job 3:13
For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job speaks to himself in the immediate aftermath of his calamities, launching a curse on the day of his birth. He addresses the void, wishing he had been stillborn or buried long ago.
The words — The Hebrew phrase שָׁכַבְתִּי וְאֶשְׁקוֹט (sha.Khav.ti ve./'esh.Kot) translates literally to "I lay down and I may be at peace." It pairs the action of sleeping (יָשַׁנְתִּי, ya.Shan.ti) with the state of rest (יָנוּחַ, ya.Nu.ach) to describe death as a cessation of labor.
The thread — This longing for death-as-rest echoes in Job 14:10, which notes a man dies and is laid low, and Job 21:13, which describes the wicked going down to Sheol in peace. It also parallels Ecclesiastes 9:10, which contrasts earthly labor with the inactivity of Sheol.
Why it lands — The text demands the reader confront the raw desire for cessation when suffering outweighs endurance. It asks no comfort but forces an examination of how grief can reduce life to a simple wish for untroubled sleep.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
Cross-references
- Job 14:10 But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
- Job 21:13 They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace.
- Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
- Job 7:8 The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.
- Job 7:21 Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; You will seek me, but I will be no more.”
- Job 10:22 to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
- Job 17:13 If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
- Job 19:27 I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!
- Job 21:23 One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease.
- Ecclesiastes 6:3 A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.