A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.
Parallel translations
- WEB the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”
- BSB to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like 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 88:12Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
- Job 38:17Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
- Job 34:22There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
- 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.
- Luke 16:26And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
- 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 44:19Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
- Jer 13:16Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
- 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.
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.