That is why you cannot see in the darkness, and waves of water cover 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.
- 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.
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 my head; I said, I am cut off.
- Ps 69:1–2For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Lilies.” By David. Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!
- Jonah 2:3For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me.
- Ps 124:4–5then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul;
- Job 19:8He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.
- Lam 3:2He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
- Joel 2:2–3A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.
- Matt 8:12but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
- Job 5:14They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.
- Isa 8:22and look to the earth, and see distress, darkness, and the gloom of anguish. They will be driven into thick darkness.
- Job 18:6The light shall be dark in his tent. His lamp above him shall be put out.
- Ps 42:7Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
- Job 18:18He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
- Job 38:34“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That abundance of waters may cover you?
- Prov 4:19The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over.
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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.