Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.
Parallel translations
- WEB or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
- BSB it is so dark you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
- 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 3:54Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
- Ps 69:1–2Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
- Jonah 2:3For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
- Ps 124:4–5Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:
- Job 19:8He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
- Lam 3:2He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
- Joel 2:2–3A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
- Matt 8:12But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
- Job 5:14They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope in the noonday as in the night.
- Isa 8:22And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.
- Job 18:6The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
- Ps 42:7Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
- Job 18:18He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
- Job 38:34Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?
- Prov 4:19The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
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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.