and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.
Parallel translations
- WEB and look to the earth, and see distress, darkness, and the gloom of anguish. They will be driven into thick darkness.
- KJV And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.
- BSB Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.
- NKJV Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.
- NASB Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Looking everywhere but to God, the people find only distress, darkness, and gloom.
Overview
Having rejected the light of God's word, the people see nothing but anguish and thick darkness. The verse closes the chapter on a note of deep despair for the unbelieving. Yet this darkness sets the stage for the great light promised in chapter 9, the dawn of hope in the coming Messiah.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Isa 5:30They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.
- Matt 22:13Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness; there is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’
- Jer 13:16Give glory to Yahweh your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it gross darkness.
- Matt 8:12but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
- Jer 30:6–7Ask now, and see whether a man travails with child. Why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned pale?
- Job 18:18He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
- Jude 1:13wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
- Prov 14:32The wicked is brought down in his calamity, but in death, the righteous has a refuge.
- Zeph 1:14–15The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly.
- Matt 24:29But immediately after the oppression of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken;
- 2 Chr 15:5–6In those times there was no peace to him who went out, nor to him who came in; but great troubles were on all the inhabitants of the lands.
- Amos 5:18–20“Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.
- Isa 9:1But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
- Jer 23:12Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness. They shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation,” says Yahweh.
- Isa 8:20Turn to the law and to the testimony! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.
- Luke 21:25–26There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves;
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 8:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.