before I go—never to return—to a land of darkness and gloom,
Parallel translations
- WEB before I go where I shall not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;
- KJV Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
- NKJV Before I go to the place from which I shall not return, To the land of darkness and the shadow of death,
- NASB Before I go—and I shall not return— To the land of darkness and deep shadow,
- NLT before I leave—never to return— for the land of darkness and utter gloom.
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
Job speaks of going to the land of darkness and the shadow of death from which none return. He contemplates death's seeming finality.
Overview
Job describes Sheol as a place of gloom from which there is no coming back, reflecting the limited revelation of his day about the afterlife. His somber view heightens the longing for hope beyond the grave. That hope is fully unveiled in Christ, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light (2 Timothy 1:10; John 11:25-26).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Job 3:5May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
- 2 Sam 12:23But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
- Job 16:22For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.
- Job 7:8–10The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.
- Ps 23:4Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
- Ps 88:11–12Can Your loving devotion be proclaimed in the grave, Your faithfulness in Abaddon?
- Job 14:10–14But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
- 2 Sam 14:14For surely we will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.
- Job 3:13For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest
- Jer 2:6They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
- Ps 88:6You have laid me in the lowest Pit, in the darkest of the depths.
- Isa 38:11I said, “I will never again see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living; I will no longer look on mankind with those who dwell in this world.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 10:21 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.