Limitless Word
“Your life would be brighter than noonday; Darkness would be like the morning.
Job 11:17 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Life shall be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning.
  • KJV And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday: thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.
  • BSB Your life will be brighter than noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.
  • NKJV And your life would be brighter than noonday. Though you were dark, you would be like the morning.
  • NLT Your life will be brighter than the noonday. Even darkness will be as bright as morning.

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

Zophar foresees Job's life shining brighter than noon, with darkness becoming like morning. He promises radiant restoration.

Overview

Zophar assures Job that repentance would turn his gloom into light surpassing midday, so that even darkness would seem like dawn. The picture of light overcoming darkness is beautiful and biblically resonant. Its fullest realization is in Christ, the light of the world, in whom even our darkest seasons give way to the brightness of His salvation (John 8:12; Proverbs 4:18).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 12

  • Isa 58:8–10Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you; and Yahweh’s glory will be your rear guard.
  • Ps 37:6he will make your righteousness go out as the light, and your justice as the noon day sun.
  • Prov 4:18But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light, that shines more and more until the perfect day.
  • Zech 14:6–7It will happen in that day, that there will not be light, cold, or frost.
  • Mic 7:8–9Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me.
  • Hos 6:3Let us acknowledge Yahweh. Let us press on to know Yahweh. As surely as the sun rises, Yahweh will appear. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain that waters the earth.”
  • Ps 112:4Light dawns in the darkness for the upright, gracious, merciful, and righteous.
  • 1 Chr 29:10Therefore David blessed Yahweh before all the assembly; and David said, “You are blessed, Yahweh, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever.
  • Job 42:11–17Then came there to him all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.
  • Mal 4:2But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall.
  • Ps 92:14They will still produce fruit in old age. They will be full of sap and green,
  • Luke 2:26–32It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 11:17YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 11:17 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.