‘Now, wait,’ some people acquainted with the Bible might object, ‘did not Job say in Job chapter 16, verse 22, that “by the path by which” he would “not return” he would “go away”? And at Job 7:9 he pointed out: “He that is going down to Sheol [the grave] will not come up.” Job added in Job 7 verse 10: “He will not return anymore to his house, and his place will not acknowledge him anymore.”’

So, as some scholars claim, do not those verses and similar statements show that Job viewed death as ‘a land of no return’? Do such statements mean that Job did not believe in a future resurrection? For the answer, we must take these words in their setting, also comparing them with other thoughts that Job expressed on the subject.

Job did not know the reasons behind his suffering. For a time he mistakenly thought that God was responsible for his tribulation. (Job 6:4; 7:17-20; 16:11-13) Dispirited, he felt that his only place of immediate relief was the grave. (Job 7:21; 17:1; compare 3:11-13.) There, from the standpoint of his contemporaries, he would not be seen, not return to his house, not get further acknowledgment, not come back or have any prospect of doing so before God’s appointed time. Left to themselves without intervention by God, Job and all others of Adam’s descendants were powerless to rise from the dead.a​—Job 7:9, 10; 10:21; 14:12.