While spending many chapters arguing with his friends about the source of his pain; Job gains increasing clarity on some key issues: The sovereign power of God The goodness & justice of God The faithfulness of his own heart

to one place after death, whether human The Hebrew word "Sheol," refers to the grave or the realm of the dead. Through much of the Old Testament, it was believed that all went to one place after death, whether human or animal, whether righteous or wicked. No one could avoid Sheol, which was thought to be down in the lowest parts of the earth. Sheol is devoid of love, light, thought, knowledge, memory…and even sound.

In every speech up until Chapter 19, Job had expressed the conviction that he would certainly die and go to Sheol in misery. He longs for it. But there is a gradual change in the way he talks about dying. At first in Job 7:9 (his response to Eliphaz), he is sure that death is the end of everything: "As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up."

In Job 10: 20–22 (his response to Bildad), he is still sunk in despair about death, "Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort before I go whence I shall not return to the land of gloom and deep darkness, the land of gloom and chaos, where light is as darkness."

Then in Job 14: 7–14 (his response to Zophar), Job again faces the certainty of his death in suffering and cries out to be released to die (vs. 13). But this time he asks a question in verse 14: "If a man die, shall he live again?" Also in his second response to Eliphaz (17: 13–16), Job’s reference to Sheol is one of question rather than despair.

Job 19: 25-27 (Amplified Bible) “For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, and at the last He will take His stand upon the earth. Even after my [mortal] skin is destroyed [by death], yet from my [immortal] flesh I will see God, Whom I, even I, will see for myself, and my eyes will see Him and not another! My heart faints within me.”

Isaiah 26:19 “But Your dead will live, Lord;     their bodies will rise— let those who dwell in the dust     wake up and shout for joy— Your dew is like the dew of the morning;     the earth will give birth to her dead.”

Isaiah 25: 6-8 6 “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines. 7 On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; 8     He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears     from all faces; He will remove His people’s disgrace from all the earth.”

Job is finally sure that beyond the grave he will meet God as a Redeemer and not an angry Judge. He will be redeemed from all his misery—even if it will only be after death. There will be life and light not just death and darkness. This confidence does not answer all Job's questions or solve all his theological problems. He still is utterly perplexed as to why he should have to suffer as he does.