The Meaning of Job 16:18 Explained

Job 16:18

KJV: O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.

YLT: O earth, do not thou cover my blood! And let there not be a place for my cry.

Darby: O earth, cover not my blood, and let there be no place for my cry!

ASV: O earth, cover not thou my blood, And let my cry have no resting -place.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

O earth,  cover  not thou my blood,  and let my cry  have no place. 

What does Job 16:18 Mean?

Verse Meaning

Job called on the earth not to cover his blood ( Job 16:18) so it might cry to God for vindication (cf. Genesis 4:10). Job did not want people to forget his case when he died. He wanted someone to answer his questions and to vindicate his innocence even if he was not alive to witness it. The witness/advocate to which he referred ( Job 16:19) seems to be some heavenly witness other than God since he called this person a man ( Job 16:21). [1] Some commentators, however, believed Job had God in mind. [2] Certainly the God- Prayer of Manasseh , Jesus Christ, our advocate with the Father, is the person whom God provided to meet this need. However, Job did not have revelation concerning Him as far as the text indicates. Job longed for someone to plead with God for him since God was apparently ignoring his cries. Moreover, Job"s companions were not pleading his case as true friends should have done ( Job 16:20; Job 17:2).
"With increasing clarity Job is seeing that satisfactory answers might be gained only when he has more direct dealings with God after death." [3]
"In all the movement of this great answer it would seem as though outlines of the truth were breaking upon Job." [4]

Context Summary

Job 16:1-22 - Turning From "miserable Comforters" Unto God
With bitterness the sufferer turns from his comforters to God. As the r.v. makes clear, he says that if he were in their place and they in his, instead of joining words together and evincing the pride of the immaculate, he would set himself to speak strengthening words and to assuage their grief by tender sympathy.
He compares his pains to the attack of a wild beast, Job 16:7-14; and from this he proceeds to describe the anguish of his grief, Job 16:15-20. But toward the end of the chapter a new thought begins to shape itself; and from his lowest despair he catches sight of a Vindicator and a vindication that must someday be his. Job 16:21 should be read as in the r.v., margin. Job wanted a son of man to plead for him; and his prayer has been more than answered in the Son of man, who pleads for us "not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an indissoluble life," Hebrews 7:16. "O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul," Lamentations 3:58. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 16

1  Job reproves his friends for unmercifulness
17  He maintains his innocence

What do the individual words in Job 16:18 mean?

Earth not do cover my blood and no let have [resting] place my cry
אֶ֭רֶץ אַל־ תְּכַסִּ֣י דָמִ֑י וְֽאַל־ יְהִ֥י מָ֝ק֗וֹם לְזַעֲקָתִֽי

אֶ֭רֶץ  Earth 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular
Root: אֶרֶץ  
Sense: land, earth.
תְּכַסִּ֣י  do  cover 
Parse: Verb, Piel, Imperfect, second person feminine singular
Root: כָּסָה  
Sense: to cover, conceal, hide.
דָמִ֑י  my  blood 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular construct, first person common singular
Root: דָּם  
Sense: blood.
וְֽאַל־  and  no 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Adverb
Root: אַל  
Sense: not, no, nor, neither, nothing (as wish or preference).
יְהִ֥י  let  have 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect Jussive, third person masculine singular
Root: אֶהְיֶה 
Sense: to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out.
מָ֝ק֗וֹם  [resting]  place 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: מָקֹום  
Sense: standing place, place.
לְזַעֲקָתִֽי  my  cry 
Parse: Preposition-l, Noun, feminine singular construct, first person common singular
Root: זְעָקָה  
Sense: cry, outcry.