Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
Parallel translations
- WEB before I go where I shall not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;
- BSB before I go—never to return—to a land of darkness and gloom,
- 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 3:5Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
- 2 Sam 12:23But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
- Job 16:22When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
- Job 7:8–10The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.
- Ps 23:4Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
- Ps 88:11–12Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?
- Job 14:10–14But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
- 2 Sam 14:14For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.
- Job 3:13For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
- Jer 2:6Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?
- Ps 88:6Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
- Isa 38:11I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.