Bible Strands
Job 38:17
Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks from the whirlwind to Job, following a series of questions about the natural world and preceding a demand for Job to acknowledge his limited knowledge.
The words — The Hebrew נִגְל֣וּ (niglu) translates literally to "have they been revealed," standing alongside שַׁעֲרֵי־מָ֑וֶת (sha'arei-mavet), meaning "gates of death."
The thread — The phrase "gates of death" appears in Psalms 9:13 and Psalms 107:18, while Job 3:5 uses parallel imagery of darkness and gloom to describe the realm of the dead.
Why it lands — The text directly questions whether Job has accessed or witnessed the boundaries of mortality, requiring him to admit his inability to navigate or comprehend the limits of human life.
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
Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
Cross-references
- Psalms 9:13 Be merciful to me, O LORD; see how my enemies afflict me! Lift me up from the gates of death,
- Psalms 107:18 They loathed all food and drew near to the gates of death.
- Job 3:5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
- Job 12:22 He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into light.
- Psalms 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
- Psalms 107:10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains,
- Psalms 107:14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke away their chains.
- Psalms 116:3 The ropes of death entangled me; the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow.
- Amos 5:8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name—
- Matthew 4:16 the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”