He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
Parallel translations
- WEB He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.
- KJV He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
- NKJV He has fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass; And He has set darkness in my paths.
- NASB “He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass, And He has put darkness on my paths.
- NLT God has blocked my way so I cannot move. He has plunged my path into darkness.
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 says God has walled up his path and set darkness before him, blocking every way forward. He feels hemmed in by God himself.
Overview
Using imagery of an impassable, darkened road, Job portrays God as the one obstructing his life so he cannot escape his misery. The darkness signals confusion, hopelessness, and the loss of clear direction. Even here Job's words are addressed God-ward, and the believer trusts that the God who hedges in can also make a way, supremely through the One who is the Way (John 14:6).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Job 3:23Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
- Lam 3:7He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
- Lam 3:9He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
- Ps 88:8You have removed my friends from me; You have made me repulsive to them; I am confined and cannot escape.
- Prov 4:19But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble.
- Hos 2:6Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way.
- Job 30:26But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
- Isa 50:10Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of His Servant? Who among you walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD; let him lean on his God.
- Josh 24:7So your fathers cried out to the LORD, and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, over whom He brought the sea and engulfed them. Your very eyes saw what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.
- Jer 23:12“Therefore their path will become slick; they will be driven away into the darkness and fall into it. For I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment,” declares the LORD.
- Jer 13:16Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.
- John 8:12Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
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 19:8 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.