Job 3:18
in Job 3The captives enjoy their ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
There the prisoners are at ease together; They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
KJV
There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
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This verse in Job 3
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThe prisoners rest together - Those who were slaves, feeling all the troubles, and scarcely tasting any of the pleasures of life, are quiet in the grave together; and the voice of the oppressor, the hard, unrelenting task-master, which was more terrible than death, is heard no more. They are free from his exactions, and his mouth is silent in the dust. This may be a reference to the Egyptian bondage. The children of Israel cried by reason of their oppressors or task-masters.
This site's exposition
with kings and counselors of the earth
on Job 3:14-19
In Job's grave, kings lie beside a stillborn child, the greatest men he can name and the least death he can imagine at one rest. "There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest" is the chapter's most quoted line, a longing for an end to trouble.
This site's exposition
The captives enjoy their ease
The oppressor is a taskmaster, as Wesley notes. Clarke hears the captives of forced labour, quiet together at last and beyond the voice that drove them. Wesley adds that Job speaks here only of rest from earthly trouble and leaves the state after death for later chapters.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
"There, those" who were "once chained, will be at ease together," without their former pain together with those who held them bound. There too men weighed down with anguish and with slavery, "hear not the voice of the taskmaster." This accords with Isaiah, "How the …
MORAL INTERPRETATION. There the former prisoners are alike without vexation. For though the just are possessed by no riot of carnal desires, yet the clog of corruption binds them down in this life with hard chains; for it is written, For the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
The oppressor - Or, taskmaster, who urges and forces them to work by cruel threatenings and stripes. Job meddles not here with their eternal state after death, of which he speaks hereafter, but only their freedom from worldly troubles, which is the sole matter of his present discourse.
There the prisoners rest together,....
Those that were here doomed to perpetual servitude, that could call nothing their own, no, not their own bodies, are there no longer under command or control: There the servant is free from his master, which is a good reason why those that have power should use it moderately, and those that are in subjection should bear it patiently, yet a little while.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
There the prisoners rest together - Herder translates this, “There the prisoners rejoice in their freedom.” The Septuagint strangely enough, “There they of old (ὁ αἰώνιοι hoi aiōnioi) assembled together (ὁμοθυμαδόν homothumadon) have not heard the voice of the exactor.” The Hebrew word שׁאן shâ'an means “to rest, to be quiet, to be tranquil”; and the sense is, that they are in the grave freed from chains and oppressions. They hear not the voice of the oppressor - Of him who exacted taxes, and who laid on them heavy burdens, and who imprisoned them for imaginary crimes. He who is bound in chains, and who has no other prospect of release, can look for it in the grave and will find it there. Similar sentiments are found respecting death in Seneca, ad Marcian, 20: “Mots omnibus finis, multis remedium, quibusdam votum; haec servitutem invito domino remittit; haec captivorum catenas levat; haec a carcere reducit, quos exire imperium impofens vetuerat; haec exulibus, in pairtam semper animum oculosque tendentibus, ostendit, nibil interesse inter quos quisque jaceat; haec, ubi res communes fortuna male divisit, et aequo jure genitos allure alii donavit, exaequat omnia; haec est, quae nihil quidquam alieno fecit arbitrio; haec est, ea qua nemo humilitatem guam sensit; haec est, quae nuili paruit.” The sense in Job is, that all are at liberty in death. Chains no longer bind; prisons no longer incarccrate; the voice of oppression no longer alarms.
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יַ֭חַד | yachad | together | H3162 → | 141 times |
| אֲסִירִ֣ים | ʾasirim | prisoners | H615 → | |
| שַׁאֲנָ֑נוּ | shaananu | they are at ease | H7599 → | |
| לֹ֥א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| שָׁ֝מְע֗וּ | shamu | they hear | H8085 → | 1159 times |
| ק֣וֹל | kol | [the] voice of | H6963 → | 506 times |
| נֹגֵֽשׂ׃ | noges | a taskmaster | H5065 → |
יַ֭חַדtogether
yachadH3162 →141 times
אֲסִירִ֣יםprisoners
ʾasirimH615 →
שַׁאֲנָ֑נוּthey are at ease
shaananuH7599 →
לֹ֥אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
שָׁ֝מְע֗וּthey hear
shamuH8085 →1159 times
ק֣וֹל[the] voice of
kolH6963 →506 times
נֹגֵֽשׂ׃a taskmaster
nogesH5065 →
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
Judges 4:3Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, because Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he had harshly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.
it leads to
- Judges 1:19
The LORD was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the plains because they had chariots of iron.
- Psalms 106:42
Their enemies oppressed them, and subdued them under their hand.
- Judges 3:9
But when the Israelites cried out to the LORD, He raised up Othniel son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz as a deliverer to save them.
- Jeremiah 2:27–28
say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces, yet in the time of trouble…
- Deuteronomy 28:33
A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.
- Judges 1:19
Through
Job 39:7He scorns the tumult of the city and never hears the shouts of a driver.
it leads to
- Exodus 5:18
Now get to work. You will be given no straw, yet you must deliver the full quota of bricks.”
- Exodus 5:13–16
The taskmasters kept pressing them, saying, “Fulfill your quota each day, just as you did when straw was provided.”
- Job 39:18
Yet when she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.
- Exodus 5:18
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
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); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book IV; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.