if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
Job has lost his children, his wealth and his health, and his friends keep urging him to repent of some hidden sin. He stops arguing and answers by naming the grave and the worm as his family.
The Grave as Family
Job has made up his mind. His friends still offer him a way back if he will repent, but he expects nothing more.
William KellyHe had made up his mind for death, as well as the complete collapse of every plan he had cherished. His friends might hold out fresh and bright hopes if only he would repent, putting night for day and light close by out of sheer darkness. But if he was to hope at all, the grave was his house, his bed spread in darkness, corruption and the worm his nearest relatives.
What "the Pit" Means Here
Older translations read "corruption" or "grave" where the ESV has "the pit," and the quotes here follow them. One commentator names the Hebrew word behind the English, and keeps the body's future separate from the soul's.
F. B. HoleThe closing words of this speech of Job are a very sad complaint about how hopeless his outlook is. As for his poor body, only corruption and the worm were ahead of it, while his soul would be in the unseen world. The word translated "grave" in verse 13, and the one translated "pit" in verse 16, is the Hebrew sheol, the equivalent of the Greek hades used in the New Testament.
The Worm as a Picture of Man
Job's choice of the worm for "mother" and "sister" is not random. The Bible gives this creature a fixed meaning, and later uses it of Israel and of Christ Himself.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe worm is used as a symbol to show how extremely feeble man is. Job 17:14; Job 25:6. In blessing Israel the LORD said, "Fear not, you worm Jacob," Isa. 41:14; and the Lord, to show how low a place He was in, said, "I am a worm and not a man." Ps. 22:6. In the grave man's body becomes the companion of worms, even if they do not actually feed on it. Job 21:26; Job 24:20; Isa. 14:11.
Why Job Could Speak This Way
A man hiding secret sin has every reason to dread death. Job longs for it instead, and one writer treats that longing as evidence for him.
William KellyA bad conscience would have shrunk from death, as the thing that strips away all disguise and destroys the soul. Job, on the other hand, proved not only that he was genuine but what the state of his conscience was, by his earnest desire to depart and be with God. We see his confidence in God even while he spreads out his sorrows, with no thought before him but death.
Dark Thoughts, Not the Last Word
One writer does not soften the gloom here. He calls these thoughts dark, then points ahead in the book.
Arno C. GaebeleinAnd what is his hope now? How dark and evil his thoughts! The grave is to be his house, the darkness his bed. Corruption his father, the worm his mother and his sister. He and his hope will go down to the bars of the pit, and rest together in the dust. But we shall soon hear another confession from his lips.
What Job Did Not Yet Know
Part of the weight here comes from when Job lived. One writer ties his dim outlook to how little God had yet revealed.
Frederick W. GrantBut Job's was the Old Testament hope. Outside the present scene there was little light. Death was a deep, dark "shadow," almost impossible to see through. Resurrection and restoration to a scene of earthly blessing was the solid, plain thing. There were scattered hints of other things, it is true. Enoch had long ago gone to God without seeing death. Elijah followed him in a later day. A little gleam of light had broken in there. But that was still not the revelation of the heavenly places and a portion there for those who believed. Death was not abolished, and life and incorruption had not been brought to light.
Against that background, Kelly sets Job's gloom beside the hope we now have:
William KellyWhat a contrast to such gloomy words of a saint! We have strong encouragement, because we have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us. That hope is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. It reaches into the place within the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us — Jesus, made a high priest forever.
Summary
- Household. Job names the grave as his house and decay as his family. That is a man who expects nothing more from this life.
- Feebleness. The worm shows how weak man is; God calls Israel a worm, and Christ calls Himself one in His lowest place.
- Conscience. A guilty man dreads death; Job longs for it, and that longing proved his conscience was clear.
- Darkness. Commentators do not defend these thoughts; they call them dark. Yet a different confession is coming from the same man.
- Anchor. Job faced the pit with little light on what lay beyond it. The hope now set before us is an anchor of the soul, because the forerunner has already entered.