Job 3:18

Job 3:18 Meaning and Explanation

There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

King James Version (KJV)

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In the grave, Job says, even prisoners rest in peace, no longer hearing their oppressor's voice.

What Does Job 3:18 Mean?

Job continues his picture of death's stillness. There the prisoners rest together, no longer hearing the voice of the one who drove them. The captive and the enslaved, whose lives were filled with the harsh commands of a taskmaster, find in death a release from that voice. Job, who feels himself a prisoner of his suffering, longs for the same quiet.

The image of release from the oppressor stirs a deep biblical hope. God has always been the One who hears the cry of the captive and longs to set the prisoner free. What Job glimpses faintly as the silence of death, Christ proclaims openly as His mission, to set at liberty those who are bruised and to proclaim release to the captives. The true rest from every oppressor is found not in the grave but in Him.

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What does Job 3:18 mean?

In the grave, Job says, even prisoners rest in peace, no longer hearing their oppressor's voice.

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