Job 7:9
in Job 7As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, So he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more.
KJV
As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.
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This verse in Job 7
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away - This image is taken from the light and fleecy clouds, which become smaller and smaller until they wholly vanish. For an illustration of a similar phrase, see the notes at Isa 44:22. To the grave - - שׁאול she'ôl. Septuagint, εἰς ᾅδην eis hadēn, to Hades. The word may mean grave, or the place of departed spirits; see Isa 5:14, note; Isa 14:9, note; compare the notes at Job 10:21-22. Either signification will apply here. Shall come up no more - Shall no more live on the earth.
This site's exposition
Remember that my life is but a breath
on Job 7:7-10
Job says his eyes "will never again see happiness". He speaks within the Old Testament's ordinary hope of Sheol, and the later reach of 19:25-26 stands out against it. "He never returns to his house" states the plain fact of mortality without yet claiming anything beyond it.
This site's exposition
As a cloud vanishes and is gone
Sheol is the place of the dead. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the line as no return to this present life, and Wesley adds until the general resurrection. A cloud vanishes and is gone.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book VIII · Written before 604.
proposed
As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away; so he that goeth down to hell shall come up no more. For a cloud is suspended in the higher regions, but it is condensed and driven by the wind that it flies, and it is scattered by the heat of the sun that it vanishes.
He proves this by a comparison when he adds, "As a cloud dissolves and is gone, so he who goes down below, will not ascend." The dead are said to go down to the underworld either because they all descended to Sheol according to the …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
): He that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more until the general resurrection, shall come up no more to his place in this world. Dying is work that is to be done but once, and therefore it had need be well done: an error there is past retrieve.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
No more - Never until the general resurrection. When we see a cloud which looked great, as if it would eclipse the sun, of a sudden dispersed and disappearing, say, Just such a thing is the life of man, a vapor that appears for a while and then vanisheth away.
As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
(2Sa 12:23). the grave--the Sheol, or place of departed spirits, not disproving Job's belief in the resurrection. It merely means, "He shall come up no more" in the present order of things.
As the cloud is consumed - As the cloud is dissipated, so is the breath of those that go down to the grave. As that cloud shall never return, so shall it be with the dead; they return no more to sojourn with the living. See on the following verses.
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כָּלָ֣ה | kalah | it vanishes | H3615 → | 208 times |
| עָ֭נָן | ʾanon | a cloud | H6051 → | 87 times |
| וַיֵּלַ֑ךְ | vaiyelakh | and it has gone | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| כֵּ֥ן | ken | thus | H3651 → | 771 times |
| יוֹרֵ֥ד | yored | [one who] has gone down | H3381 → | 381 times |
| שְׁ֝א֗וֹל | sheol | Sheol | H7585 → | 66 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יַעֲלֶֽה׃ | yaaleh | he will come up | H5927 → | 890 times |
כָּלָ֣הit vanishes
kalahH3615 →208 times
עָ֭נָןa cloud
ʾanonH6051 →87 times
וַיֵּלַ֑ךְand it has gone
vaiyelakhH1980 →1546 times
כֵּ֥ןthus
kenH3651 →771 times
יוֹרֵ֥ד[one who] has gone down
yoredH3381 →381 times
שְׁ֝א֗וֹלSheol
sheolH7585 →66 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
יַעֲלֶֽה׃he will come up
yaalehH5927 →890 times
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
2 Samuel 14:14For surely we will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises ways that the banished one…
it leads to
- Job 30:23
Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
- Numbers 35:28
because the manslayer must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may he return to the land he owns.
- Hebrews 9:27
Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,
- Numbers 35:15
These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.
- Numbers 35:25
The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live…
- Job 30:23
Through
Job 10:21before I go—never to return—to a land of darkness and gloom,
it leads to
- 2 Samuel 12:23
But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
- Job 3:5
May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
- Job 16:22
For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.
- 2 Samuel 12:23
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book VIII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; 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.