Job 33:22

22 They hang on the cliff-edge of death, knowing the next breath may be their last.

Job 33:22 Meaning and Commentary

Job 33:22

Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave
Not the soul, strictly and properly speaking, for that does not, nor is it laid in the grave at death, but returns to God that gave it; rather the body, for which it is sometimes put, and of which what is here said is true, see ( Psalms 16:10 ) ; or the person of the sick man, whose disease being so threatening, all hope is gone, and he is given up by his physicians and friends, and seemingly is at the grave's mouth, and that is ready for him, and he on the brink of that; which were the apprehensions Job had of himself, ( Job 17:1 ) ; see ( Psalms 88:3 ) ( 107:17 ) ;

and his life to the destroyers;
the destroying angels, as Aben Ezra, and so the Septuagint version: or destroying diseases, and so Mr. Broughton renders it, "to killing maladies"; or it may be to worms, which destroy the body in the grave, and which Job was sensible of would quickly be his case, ( Job 19:26 ) ; though some interpret it of those that kill, or of those that are dead, with whom they are laid that die; or of deaths corporeal and eternal, and the horrors and terrors of both, with which persons in such circumstances are sometimes distressed.

Job 33:22 In-Context

20 So they can't stand the sight of food, have no appetite for their favorite treats.
21 They lose weight, wasting away to nothing, reduced to a bag of bones.
22 They hang on the cliff-edge of death, knowing the next breath may be their last.
23 "But even then an angel could come, a champion - there are thousands of them! - to take up your cause,
24 A messenger who would mercifully intervene, canceling the death sentence with the words: 'I've come up with the ransom!'
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.