Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
Parallel translations
- WEB You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the animals of the forest prowl.
- BSB You bring darkness, and it becomes night, when all the beasts of the forest prowl.
- NKJV You make darkness, and it is night, In which all the beasts of the forest creep about.
- NASB You appoint darkness and it becomes night, In which all the animals of the forest prowl about.
- NLT You send the darkness, and it becomes night, when all the forest animals prowl about.
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
God makes the darkness and night, when the forest animals come out to prowl. Even night and its creatures serve His purposes.
Overview
Darkness is not chaos but part of God's good ordering, the time when nocturnal beasts seek their food. God governs the night as fully as the day. The Lord who rules both light and darkness is the One in whom there is no darkness at all, who shines His light into our hearts through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Isa 45:7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
- Ps 74:16The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
- Gen 1:4–5And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
- Gen 8:22While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
- Ps 50:10For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
- Ps 139:10–12Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
- Amos 1:13Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 104:20 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.