Job 38:17

17 And do the gates of death open to thee for fear; and did the porters of hell quake when they saw thee?

Job 38:17 Meaning and Commentary

Job 38:17

Have the gates of death been opened unto thee?
&c.] Meaning not by which death has entered into the world, and which have been the causes and occasion of it; as the sin of man, the appointment of God, and various providences, calamities and diseases; but by which men enter into the state of the dead. Men know not experimentally what death is, nor in what way they shall go out of the world, nor at what time, nor in what place; they know not what the state of the dead is, there is no correspondence between them and the living; they do not know either what they enjoy or endure, or who precisely and with certainty are in the separate abodes of bliss or misery; the gates of these dark and invisible regions to us have never been thrown open, for mortals to look into them;

or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
the same thing in other words; the Targum and Jarchi interpret this of hell.

Job 38:17 In-Context

15 And hast thou removed light from the ungodly, and crushed the arm of the proud?

16 Or hast thou gone to the source of the sea, and walked in the tracks of the deep?

17 And do the gates of death open to thee for fear; and did the porters of hell quake when they saw thee?

18 And hast thou been instructed in the breadth of the under heaven? tell me now, what is the extent of it?

19 And in what kind of a land does the light dwell? and of what kind is the place of darkness?