If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above disregard it; may no light shine upon it.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it.
- KJV Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
- NKJV May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, Nor the light shine upon it.
- NASB “May that day be darkness; May God above not care for it, Nor light shine on it.
- NLT Let that day be turned to darkness. Let it be lost even to God on high, and let no light shine on it.
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 calls for the day of his birth to be swallowed in darkness, unsought by God. He wishes it blotted from creation.
Overview
Echoing creation language in reverse, Job asks that God not seek out that day and that no light shine on it. Where God said "Let there be light," Job cries "Let that day be darkness," voicing a wish to undo his own beginning. The poetry conveys overwhelming grief while still, paradoxically, addressing the God who governs day and night.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Matt 27:45From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.
- Exod 10:22–23So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and total darkness covered all the land of Egypt for three days.
- Deut 11:12It is a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year.
- Joel 2:2a 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.
- Acts 27:20When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the great storm continued to batter us, we abandoned all hope of being saved.
- Rev 16:10And the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness, and men began to gnaw their tongues in anguish
- Amos 5:18Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light.
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 3:4 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.