They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
Parallel translations
- WEB They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
- BSB They grope in the darkness without light; He makes them stagger like drunkards.
- 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 meet with darkness in the day time, and grope in the noonday as in the night.
- Ps 107:27They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end.
- Isa 24:20The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
- Isa 19:14The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
- Isa 59:10We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
- Gen 19:11And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
- 1 Jn 2:11But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
- Deut 28:29And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
- Acts 13:11And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some 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.