Does Job 7:9 contradict the Bible’s teaching about resurrection? I.e. had Job given up hope? (7:8–10)
The Scriptures teach that all people will be raised corporally from the tomb (cf. Dan. 12:2; 1 Cor. 15:22; Rev. 20:4–6). In fact, Jesus said that one day “all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth” (John 5:28–29). But Job seems to say just the opposite, when he penned: “he who goes down to the grave does not come up” (cf. also Job 14:12; Isa. 26:14; Amos 8:14).
Job 7:9
NKJV - 9 As the cloud disappears and vanishes away, So he who goes down to the grave does not come up.
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Asked March 25 2020
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Jack Gutknecht
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Tim Maas
I would say that, in the passage cited in the question, Job was accurately referring to his individual pre-resurrection status (that is, that once his temporal death occurred, he would not be able to return to physical life again in this age). However, to me, Job himself later (in Job 19:25-27) clearly and unmistakably indicated his belief in a future bodily resurrection at the close of the age (even if, as he said in the King James translation, worms would consume his body following his burial).
Jack Gutknecht
There will be a resurrection of all the dead, "the first resurrection," both the just and the unjust (Acts 24:15; cf. John 5:28-29). And Mr. Maas already mentioned Job himself expressing belief in the resurrection, declaring, “After my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:26, NKJV). I like the King James Version because I think it is more vivid, a translation Tim referred to: "And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." (Job 19:26). What he meant when he spoke of someone going down to the grave and not coming up (Job 7:9) is explained in the very next verse. “He shall never return TO HIS HOUSE” Job 7:10). In other words, those who die do not return to their mortal lives again. (Charles Ryrie in his Ryrie Study Bible, says concerning Job 7:9-10), "the meaning is that, after death, there is no return to the familiar scenes of earth.) Likewise, the Isaiah passage (Isa. 26:14) does not deny the resurrection. Here too the resurrection is affirmed in a succeeding verse which states clearly, “Your dead shall live; together with my dead body they shall arise” (Isaiah 26:19). Obviously, then verse 14 means “they will not live” UNTIL the resurrection. Chas. Ryrie again states in his RSB about Isaiah 26:19, "This verse, along with Job 19:26 and Dan. 12:2, explicitly teaches the bodily resurrection of believers." Indeed, the resurrection is to an immortal life (1 Cor. 15:53), not to the same mortal life one had before.
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