it is so dark you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
Parallel translations
- WEB or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
- KJV Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.
- NKJV Or darkness so that you cannot see; And an abundance of water covers you.
- NASB Or darkness, so that you cannot see, And a flood of water covers you.
- NLT That is why you cannot see in the darkness, and waves of water cover you.
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
Eliphaz adds that darkness blinds Job and floods overwhelm him, all as supposed consequences of his sin. He piles up images of calamity as evidence against Job.
Overview
Eliphaz uses darkness and flooding waters as symbols of overwhelming judgment (cf. Ps 69:1-2). He interprets Job's distress as God's righteous response to wickedness. The verse continues his false diagnosis. It is a sobering picture of how doctrine, when severed from compassion and humility, can be turned into a weapon against the very people God loves.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Lam 3:54The waters flowed over my head, and I thought I was going to die.
- Ps 69:1–2For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Lilies.” Of David. Save me, O God, for the waters are up to my neck.
- Jonah 2:3For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me; all Your breakers and waves swept over me.
- Ps 124:4–5then the floods would have engulfed us, then the torrent would have overwhelmed us,
- Job 19:8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
- Lam 3:2He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.
- Joel 2:2–3a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.
- Matt 8:12But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
- Job 5:14They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night.
- Isa 8:22Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.
- Job 18:6The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him goes out.
- Ps 42:7Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me.
- Job 18:18He is driven from light into darkness and is chased from the inhabited world.
- Job 38:34Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?
- Prov 4:19But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 22:11 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.