Bible Strands
Job 3:19
Both small and great are there, and the slave is freed from his master.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job delivers this line within a monologue cursing his birth day, speaking to no human audience but voicing his despair directly to God. He describes the grave at the moment he anticipates his own death, contrasting it with the oppressive realities of his current life.
The words — The text explicitly lists קָטֹן (ka.Ton, "small") and גָדוֹל (ga.dol, "great") to declare that social rank vanishes in the grave. It then uses חָפְשִׁ֥י (cha.fe.Shi, "free") to state the literal condition of the slave being released from his master's control.
The thread — This pattern of death as the universal equalizer runs through Job 30:23, which identifies the grave as the appointed destination for all living, and Ecclesiastes 8:8, which notes that no human holds authority over the day of death. Ecclesiastes 12:7 extends the imagery to the physical dissolution that accompanies this final state.
Why it lands — The text asserts that death terminates all earthly hierarchies and bondage, regardless of a person's former status. It requires the reader to acknowledge the absolute cessation of human power without using that fact to validate present despair or theological comfort.
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
The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
Cross-references
- Job 30:23 Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
- Ecclesiastes 8:8 As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
- Ecclesiastes 12:7 before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- Psalms 49:2 both low and high, rich and poor alike.
- Psalms 49:6 They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches.
- Psalms 49:14 Like sheep they are destined for Sheol. Death will be their shepherd. The upright will rule them in the morning, and their form will decay in Sheol, far from their lofty abode.
- Ecclesiastes 12:5 when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels—for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.
- Luke 16:22 One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried.
- Hebrews 9:27 Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,