Job 3:18

18 In the grave there is rest for the captives who no longer hear the shout of the slave driver.

Job 3:18 Meaning and Commentary

Job 3:18

[There] the prisoners rest together
"Are at ease", as Mr. Broughton renders the words; such who while they lived were in prison for debt, or were condemned to the galleys, to lead a miserable life; or such who suffered bonds and imprisonment for the sake of religion, at death their chains are knocked off, and they are as much at liberty, and enjoy as much ease, as the dead that never were prisoners; and not only rest together with those who were their fellow prisoners, but with those who never were in prison, yea, with those who cast them into it; for there the prisoners and those that imprisoned them are upon a level, enjoying equal ease and liberty:

they hear not the voice of the oppressor;
or "exactor" F24; neither of their creditors that demanded their debt of them, and threatened them with a prison, or that detained them in it; nor of the jail keeper that gave them hard words as well as stripes; nor of cruel taskmasters, who kept them to hard service in prison, and threatened them severely if they did not perform it, like the taskmasters in Egypt, ( Exodus 5:11 Exodus 5:13 ) ; but, in the grave, the blustering, terrifying, voice of such, is not heard.


FOOTNOTES:

F24 (vgn) "exactoris", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator

Job 3:18 In-Context

16 Why was I not buried like a child born dead, like a baby who never saw the light of day?
17 In the grave the wicked stop making trouble, and the weary workers are at rest.
18 In the grave there is rest for the captives who no longer hear the shout of the slave driver.
19 People great and small are in the grave, and the slave is freed from his master.
20 "Why is light given to those in misery? Why is life given to those who are so unhappy?
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.