They grope in the darkness without light; He makes them stagger like drunkards.
Parallel translations
- WEB They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
- KJV They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
- NKJV They grope in the dark without light, And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
- NASB “They grope in darkness with no light, And He makes them stagger like a drunken person.
- NLT They grope in the darkness without a light. He makes them stagger like drunkards.
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
Without God's light, even great leaders grope and stagger like drunkards. Human pride collapses before divine sovereignty.
Overview
Completing his portrait of God's power over rulers, Job pictures them groping in darkness and reeling like a drunken man. This vivid image underscores human helplessness apart from God's guidance. It points to humanity's deeper need for the light of God, fully given in Christ, the light of the world who keeps His people from stumbling in darkness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 5:14They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night.
- Ps 107:27They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their skill was useless.
- Isa 24:20The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again.
- Isa 19:14The LORD has poured into her a spirit of confusion. Egypt has been led astray in all she does, as a drunkard staggers through his own vomit.
- Isa 59:10Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.
- Gen 19:11And they struck the men at the entrance, young and old, with blindness, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door.
- 1 Jn 2:11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
- Deut 28:29and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.
- Acts 13:11Now look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and for a time you will be blind and unable to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
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 12:25 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.