Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 17:16

"It shall go down to the bars of Sheol, When once there is rest in the dust." — Job 17:16 (ASV)

They shall go down to the bars of the pit. — The last verse of this chapter, which is itself one of the most difficult, is the most difficult of all. The difficulty consists in this: the bars of the grave are masculine, and the verb, they shall go down, is feminine plural. It seems improbable that the bars of the grave should be the subject of the verb (though perhaps not absolutely impossible). However, if the bars of the grave are the place to which the going down occurs, as in the Authorized Version, then what is the subject of the verb, go down, seeing that hope, the apparent subject, is a feminine singular?

Some render it as “it shall go down,” but this is in defiance of the grammar, though the meaning it conveys is probably not far from the truth. The words clearly express a condition of utter despair, and that Job’s only hope of rest is in the grave.

It is a rule in Hebrew grammar that when the verb precedes its subject, it need not agree with it in gender or number. But here, the verb must, in any case, come after its subject. Consequently, it is very difficult to determine what that subject is.

The only apparent subject is to be found in the corruption of the worm mentioned in Job 17:14; but they, instead of going down to the grave, are already there.