There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
Job has broken his long silence. Wishing he had never been born, he pictures the grave as a place of quiet — where taskmasters have no voice and prisoners rest together. The verse raises two questions: what did Job mean by calling death a rest, and is that picture the whole truth?
Why Job Wished He Had Died
This line sits inside one long question Job is asking: why was he ever born? One writer traces that question back to the womb.
William KellyAnd so he asks, in the anguish of his soul, why, if this was to be his lot while living, did he not die from the womb? Why should he have been so tenderly cared for, only to meet such agony at last?
Death as the Great Leveller
The prisoner in this verse is one item in a longer list — kings, princes, babies, slaves.
Samuel RidoutDeath is described here as a rest (verses 13-19) in which all have an equal share. The old and the young, even the unborn baby, the great and the small, are alike at rest. Kings whose palaces have crumbled into ruins, and princes who left all their vast wealth behind, lie here at last in deep and equal repose. The wicked cannot trouble them, and no master can demand service from his slave. Prisoners and their captors find no difference in the presence of death, that great leveller of mankind.
Where Job's Picture Falls Short
These are Job's words, not God's.
Samuel RidoutIs there no difference between the condition of the wicked and of the righteous after death? … The righteous and the wicked stand in constant contrast, and they are morally unlike. That points clearly to very different futures: "The wicked is overthrown through his evildoing, but the righteous finds refuge in his death" (Prov. 14:32). By blurring the future like this, Job shows how far his soul had drifted from the truth of God. In plain language he is longing for annihilation. Materialists, and those who say the soul is not immortal, have used these and similar words to support their unscriptural views.
Another writer names what Job is doing here, and weighs it by the New Testament.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWe see from these words that his mind turned to death as the great emancipator. Moses and Elijah show the same drift of thought and weakness. So did the disappointed Jonah, who said, "it is better for me to die." … The New Testament weighs all these words and finds them wanting. Death is not a friend whose visit you should want. It is an enemy. In the light of the gospel, God's people in affliction and sorrow do not hope for relief by death. Their hope is the coming of the Lord.
The Question Job Could Not Answer
Job's "why go on living?" is a real question. One writer finds its answer where Job could not yet see it.
William KellyThe last verses (20-26) ask the question, first in general, and then about Job himself: why should he live, when he is this miserable? … The full answer could only come in a dead and risen Christ. If it were not so, the most miserable of all men would be the Christian. But now He is risen, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Fear of evil is gone for ever for the one who now walks by faith.
Slave, Master and Real Freedom
Job's picture runs from the prisoner to the slave. One writer weighs a runaway slave's escape against what his death would have meant.
The Christian's FriendIf this slave had died suddenly in his master's house, instead of running away, it might have been called "a happy release." By his death his master would have lost the power to control him, and the freed slave would never again dread his master's approach.
That release is exactly what no prisoner can arrange for himself.
The Christian's FriendRomans 6 views sin as a "master." The whole of Adam's race is in bondage to him, and his rule reaches to the ends of the earth. Prisoners have slipped out of dungeons quietly and suddenly, have climbed prison walls, and have got away. But where is the person who ever escaped the captivity of sin by his own efforts? … Christ died to take them out of the service of sin, so that they might live in association with Him, and bear fruit for God.
Summary
- Lament, not doctrine. A man in agony asks why he was ever born. This is a sufferer's wish, not God's teaching about the dead.
- Death levels. Kings, princes, infants, prisoners and slaves all share one condition. Wealth and rank make no difference once death takes them.
- Rest, but a false one. The peace Job pictures is a dreamless blank. Scripture marks out very different futures for the righteous and the wicked.
- Not a friend. The New Testament corrects the hope that death sets you free. Death is an enemy. The Christian's hope is the coming of the Lord.
- Real release. No captive escapes sin's mastery by his own effort. Freedom from that master comes through the death and resurrection of Christ. That is the answer Job's question was waiting for.