Job 17:1
in Job 17“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, The grave is ready for me.
KJV
My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
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This verse in Job 17
Commentary
10 notes on this verseMy breath is corrupt,.... Through the force of his disease, which made it have an ill smell, so that it was strange and disagreeable to his wife, Job 19:17; passing through his lungs, or other parts, which were affected with some disorder, or as frequently is the case of dying persons, and so Job thought himself to be.
This site's exposition
My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished
on Job 17:1-2
The chapter opens with three declarations of a man counting himself dead, ending with "the grave awaits me". Gill reads the opening as the words of a man near his last gasp. The two verses set the key: a man speaking from the edge of the grave.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"My spirit is broken" in bitterness and pain, because my ulcers torture me, or, on the other hand, because of my friends, who are ready to burst out against their friend.
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XIII · Written before 604.
proposed
Chap. xvii. Ver. 1. My spirit shall be wasted to thinness.
Job had shown above the great number of his afflictions, (16:14) the humiliation of his mind, (16:16) the innocence (16:18) and the brevity of a life definitively lost, (16:23) and by which the wordiness of his friends is conclusively proved. In this chapter then he …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
"Why do I talk of years to come? I am just setting out on that journey, am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. My breath is already corrupt, or broken off; my spirits are spent;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
The graves - He speaks of the sepulchres of his fathers, to which he must be gathered. The graves where they are laid, are ready for me also. Whatever is unready, the grave is ready for us: it is a bed soon made.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
My breath is corrupt - Margin or “spirit is spent.” The idea is, that his vital powers were nearly extinct; his breath failed; his power was weakened, and he was ready to die. This is connected with the previous chapter, and should not have been separated from it. There was no necessity of making a new chapter here, and we have one of those unfortunate breaks in the middle of a paragraph, and almost of a sentence, which are too common in the Scriptures.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
breath . . . corrupt--result of elephantiasis. But UMBREIT, "my strength (spirit) is spent." extinct--Life is compared to an expiring light. "The light of my day is extinguished." graves--plural, to heighten the force.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
My breath is corrupt - Rather, My spirit is oppressed, רוחי חבלה ruchi chubbalah: My days are extinct, and the sepulchral cells are ready for me - Parkhurst. There is probably a reference here to cemeteries, where were several niches, in Each of which a corpse was deposited. See on Job 17:16 (note). For חבלה chubbalah, corrupted or oppressed, some MSS. have חלה chalah, is made weak; and one has גבלה is worn down, consumed: this is agreeable to the Vulgate, Spiritus meus attenuebatur; “My spirit is exhausted.”
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| רוּחִ֣י | ruchi | spirit my | H7307 → | 378 times |
| חֻ֭בָּלָה | chubalah | it is broken | H2254 → | 27 times |
| יָמַ֥י | yamai | days my | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| נִזְעָ֗כוּ | nizakhu | they are extinguished | H2193 → | |
| קְבָרִ֥ים | kevarim | grave<s> | H6913 → | 67 times |
| לִֽי׃ | li | [belong] to me |
רוּחִ֣יspirit my
ruchiH7307 →378 times
חֻ֭בָּלָהit is broken
chubalahH2254 →27 times
יָמַ֥יdays my
yamaiH3117 →2304 times
נִזְעָ֗כוּthey are extinguished
nizakhuH2193 →
קְבָרִ֥יםgrave<s>
kevarimH6913 →67 times
לִֽי׃[belong] to me
li
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 57:16For I will not accuse you forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit of man would grow weak before Me, with the breath of those I have made.
it leads to
- Micah 7:18
Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
- Jeremiah 10:24
Correct me, O LORD, but only with justice—not in Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.
- Psalms 103:9–16
He will not always accuse us, nor harbor His anger forever.
- Psalms 85:5
Will You be angry with us forever? Will You draw out Your anger to all generations?
- Hebrews 12:9
Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?
- Micah 7:18
Through
Job 6:11What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What is my future, that I should be patient?
it leads to
- Psalms 103:14–16
For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust.
- Psalms 102:23
He has broken my strength on the way; He has cut short my days.
- Psalms 39:5
You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
- Psalms 103:14–16
About Job
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON JOB 17:1-2; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.