Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.
Parallel translations
- KJV Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.
- BSB Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.
- NKJV Because I was not cut off from the presence of darkness, And He did not hide deep darkness from my face.
- NASB But I am not destroyed by darkness, Nor by deep gloom which covers me.
- NLT Darkness is all around me; thick, impenetrable darkness is everywhere.
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 laments that he was not removed before this darkness overtook him. It matters as a raw cry of one overwhelmed by suffering and God's hiddenness.
Overview
Job grieves that he was not cut off before the gloom came, nor spared the thick darkness now covering his face. The verse expresses despair at being left alive to endure such anguish. Yet the wider book moves toward light beyond the darkness, foreshadowing the hope that even the deepest night yields to God's deliverance in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Job 19:8He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.
- Isa 57:1The righteous perish, and no one lays it to heart. Merciful men are taken away, and no one considers that the righteous is taken away from the evil.
- 2 Kgs 22:20‘Therefore behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place.’”’” So they brought this message back to the king.
- Job 15:22He doesn’t believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
- Job 18:6The light shall be dark in his tent. His lamp above him shall be put out.
- Job 22:11or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
- Job 6:9even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
- Job 18:18He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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 23:17 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.