to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
Parallel translations
- WEB the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”
- KJV A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.
- NKJV A land as dark as darkness itself, As the shadow of death, without any order, Where even the light is like darkness.’ ”
- NASB The land of utter gloom like darkness itself, Of deep shadow without order, And it shines like darkness.”
- NLT It is a land as dark as midnight, a land of gloom and confusion, where even the light is dark as midnight.’”
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 pictures the realm of death as utter, disordered darkness where even light is like midnight. It closes his lament on a note of deep gloom.
Overview
Job intensifies his description of the grave as a land of thick darkness and chaos, where light itself is darkness. His bleak portrait expresses how hopeless death appears apart from clearer revelation. The contrast with the gospel is striking, for in Christ the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and death's gloom is overcome (Matthew 4:16; John 8:12).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 88:12Will Your wonders be known in the darkness, or Your righteousness in the land of oblivion?
- Job 38:17Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
- Job 34:22There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity can hide.
- Job 3:5May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
- Luke 16:26And besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that even those who wish cannot cross from here to you, nor can anyone cross from there to us.’
- 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 44:19But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals; You have covered us with deepest darkness.
- Jer 13:16Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.
- 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.
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 10:22 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.