They grope in the dark without light, And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
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.
- BSB They grope in the darkness without light; He makes them stagger like drunkards.
- 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 at noonday as in the night.
- Ps 107:27They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
- Isa 24:20The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again.
- Isa 19:14Yahweh has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
- Isa 59:10We grope for the wall like the blind. Yes, we grope as those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as if it were twilight. Among those who are strong, we are like dead men.
- Gen 19:11They struck the men who 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 who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
- Deut 28:29You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you.
- Acts 13:11Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a season!” Immediately a mist and darkness fell on him. He went around 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.