before I leave—never to return— for the land of darkness and utter 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;
- 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,
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 claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.
- 2 Sam 12:23But now 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 a few years have come, I shall go the way of no return.
- Job 7:8–10The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.
- 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 88:11–12Is your loving kindness declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction?
- Job 14:10–14But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
- 2 Sam 14:14For we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground, which can’t be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him.
- Job 3:13For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,
- Jer 2:6They didn’t say, ‘Where is Yahweh who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who 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 one passed through, and where no man lived?’
- Ps 88:6You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.
- Isa 38:11I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see 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.