Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.
- BSB May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
- NKJV May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it.
- NASB “May darkness and black gloom claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it.
- NLT Let the darkness and utter gloom claim that day for its own. Let a black cloud overshadow it, and let the darkness terrify 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 piles up images of darkness and gloom to reclaim the day of his birth for death. He wants it utterly extinguished.
Overview
Heaping up terms for darkness and the shadow of death, Job longs for his birthday to be seized by blackness. The intense imagery measures the depth of his suffering rather than any literal request. It expresses despair honestly, the kind of anguish that the gospel ultimately meets with the hope of resurrection light.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 22
- Job 28:3He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.
- Job 10:21–22Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
- Jer 2:6Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?
- Ps 23:4Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
- Ezek 34:12As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
- Ps 107:14He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.
- Ps 107:10Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;
- Isa 9:2The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
- Jer 4:28For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
- Deut 4:11And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.
- Jer 13:16Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
- Job 16:16My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
- Job 24:17For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
- Matt 4:16The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
- Job 38:17Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
- Luke 1:79To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
- Ezek 30:3For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.
- Heb 12:18For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
- Amos 5:8Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
- Joel 2:2A 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.
- Amos 8:10And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
- Ps 44:19Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
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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 3:5 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
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