But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
Parallel translations
- WEB When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness.
- KJV When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
- NKJV But when I looked for good, evil came to me; And when I waited for light, then came darkness.
- NASB “When I expected good, evil came; When I waited for light, darkness came.
- NLT So I looked for good, but evil came instead. I waited for the light, but darkness fell.
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 looked for good but evil came, and waited for light but found darkness. It captures the bitter reversal of his hopeful expectations.
Overview
Job describes how his reasonable expectation of blessing was met instead with calamity, and his hope for light gave way to gloom. The verse expresses the disorienting experience of life not unfolding as the upright might expect. It reminds believers that present darkness is not the final word, for the gospel promises that those who walk with God will at last see the true Light, Christ, who turns mourning into joy.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Jer 8:15We hoped for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing, but there was only terror.
- Jer 14:19Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of healing, but there was only terror.
- Job 3:25–26For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me.
- Job 23:17Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.
- Ps 97:11Light shines on the righteous, gladness on the upright in heart.
- Isa 50:10Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of His Servant? Who among you walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD; let him lean on his God.
- Job 19:8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
- Job 18:6The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him goes out.
- Mic 1:12For the dwellers of Maroth pined for good, but calamity came down from the LORD, even to the gate of Jerusalem.
- Jer 15:18Why is my pain unending, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become like a mirage to me—water that is not there.
- Job 29:18So I thought: ‘I will die in my nest and multiply my days as the sand.
- Job 18:18He is driven from light into darkness and is chased from the inhabited world.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 30:26 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.