Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, July 27th, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

Complete Jewish Bible

Job 3:4

may gloom dark as death defile it, may clouds settle on it, may it be terrified by its own blackness.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Despondency;   Prayer;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Darkness;   Murmuring;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Poetry of the Hebrews;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Color, Symbolic Meaning of;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Heart;   Independency of God;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Poetry;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Jeremiah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Poetry;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Job;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Darkness;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Dark;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Darkness;   Strophic Forms in the Old Testament;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
If only that day had turned to darkness!May God above not care about it,or light shine on it.
Hebrew Names Version
Let that day be darkness; Don't let God from above seek for it, Neither let the light shine on it.
King James Version
Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
English Standard Version
Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.
New Century Version
Let that day turn to darkness. Don't let God care about it. Don't let light shine on it.
New English Translation
That day—let it be darkness; let not God on high regard it, nor let light shine on it!
Amplified Bible
"May that day be darkness; Let God above not care about it, Nor light shine on it.
New American Standard Bible
"May that day be darkness; May God above not care for it, Nor light shine on it.
World English Bible
Let that day be darkness; Don't let God from above seek for it, Neither let the light shine on it.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Let that day bee darkenesse, let not God regarde it from aboue, neyther let the light shine vpon it,
Legacy Standard Bible
May that day be darkness;Let not God seek it from above,Nor light shine on it.
Berean Standard Bible
If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above disregard it; may no light shine upon it.
Contemporary English Version
Forget about that day, cover it with darkness,
Darby Translation
That day—let it be darkness, let not +God care for it from above, neither let light shine upon it:
Easy-to-Read Version
I wish that day had remained dark. I wish God above had forgotten that day and not let any light shine on it.
George Lamsa Translation
Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
Good News Translation
Turn that day into darkness, God. Never again remember that day; never again let light shine on it.
Lexham English Bible
Let that day become darkness; may God not seek it from above, nor may daylight shine on it.
Literal Translation
Let that day be darkness! Let not God look on it from above, nor let the light shine on it.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The same daye be turned to darcknesse, and not regarded of God from aboue, nether be shyned vpo wt light:
American Standard Version
Let that day be darkness; Let not God from above seek for it, Neither let the light shine upon it.
Bible in Basic English
That day--let it be dark; let not God take note of it from on high, and let not the light be shining on it;
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The same day be [turned to] darknesse, and not regarded of God from aboue, neither let the light shyne vpon it:
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Let that day be darkness;
King James Version (1611)
Let that day bee darkenesse, let not God regard it from aboue, neither let the light shine vpon it.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Let that night be darkness, and let not the Lord regard it from above, neither let light come upon it.
English Revised Version
Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thilke dai be turnede in to derknessis; God seke not it aboue, and be it not in mynde, nethir be it liytned with liyt.
Update Bible Version
Let that day be darkness; Don't let God from above seek for it, Neither let the light shine on it.
Webster's Bible Translation
Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
New King James Version
May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, Nor the light shine upon it.
New Living Translation
Let that day be turned to darkness. Let it be lost even to God on high, and let no light shine on it.
New Life Bible
May that day be darkness. May God above not care for it. May light not shine on it.
New Revised Standard
Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, or light shine on it.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
That day, be it darkness, - Let not God enquire after it from above, May there shine upon it no clear beam:
Douay-Rheims Bible
Let that day be turned into darkness, let not God regard it from above, and let not the light shine upon it.
Revised Standard Version
Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.
Young's Literal Translation
That day -- let it be darkness, Let not God require it from above, Nor let light shine upon it.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"May that day be darkness; Let not God above care for it, Nor light shine on it.

Contextual Overview

1 Iyov said, 2 "Perish the day I was born and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.' 3 May that day be darkness, may God on high not seek it, may no light shine on it, 4 may gloom dark as death defile it, may clouds settle on it, may it be terrified by its own blackness. 5 "As for that night, may thick darkness seize it, may it not be joined to the days of the year, may it not be numbered among the months; 6 may that night be desolate, may no cry of joy be heard in it; 7 may those who curse days curse it, those who[se curses] could rouse Livyatan; 8 may the stars of its twilight be dark, may it look for light but get none, may it never see the shimmer of dawn — 9 because it didn't shut the doors of the womb I was in and shield my eyes from trouble. 10 "If I had been stillborn, if I had died at birth,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

darkness: Exodus 10:22, Exodus 10:23, Joel 2:2, Amos 5:18, Matthew 27:45, Acts 27:20, Revelation 16:10

God regard: Deuteronomy 11:12

Reciprocal: Amos 5:20 - darkness Zephaniah 1:15 - a day of darkness

Cross-References

Genesis 3:13
Adonai , God, said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me, so I ate."
Deuteronomy 29:19
But Adonai will not forgive him. Rather, the anger and jealousy of Adonai will blaze up against that person. Every curse written in this book will be upon him. Adonai will blot out his name from under heaven.
2 Kings 1:4
Therefore Adonai says, "You will never leave the bed you are lying on; you will certainly die."'" Then Eliyahu left.
2 Kings 1:6
They answered him, "A man came to meet us. He told us to go and return to the king who sent us, and tell him, ‘Here is what Adonai says: "Is it because there's no God in Isra'el that you're sending to consult Ba‘al-Z'vuv the god of ‘Ekron? Therefore you will never leave the bed you are lying on; you will certainly die."'"
2 Kings 1:16
Eliyahu said to the king, "Here is what Adonai says: ‘You sent messengers to consult Ba‘al-Z'vuv the god of ‘Ekron. Is it because there's no God in Isra'el you can consult? Therefore, you will never leave the bed you are lying on; you will certainly die.'"
2 Kings 8:10
Elisha answered, "Go and say to him, ‘You will surely recover' — even though Adonai has shown me that he will surely die."
Psalms 10:11
He says in his heart, "God forgets, he hides his face, he will never see."
2 Corinthians 2:11
so that we will not be taken advantage of by the Adversary — for we are quite aware of his schemes!
2 Corinthians 11:3
and I fear that somehow your minds may be seduced away from simple and pure devotion to the Messiah, just as Havah was deceived by the serpent and his craftiness.
1 Timothy 2:14
Also it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who, on being deceived, became involved in the transgression.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Let that day be darkness,.... Not only dark, but darkness itself, extremely dark; and which is to be understood not figuratively of the darkness of affliction and calamity; this Job would not wish for, either for himself, who had enough of that, or for others; but literally of gross natural darkness, that was horrible and dreadful, as some x render it: this was the reverse of what God said at the creation, "let there be light", Genesis 1:3, and there was, and he called it day; but Job wishes his day might be darkness, as the night; either that it had been always dark, and never become day, or in its return be remarkably dark and gloomy:

let not God regard it, from above; that is, either God who is above, and on high, the High and Holy One, the Most High God, and who is higher than the highest, and so this is a descriptive character of him; or else this respects the place where he is, the highest heaven, where is his throne, and from whence he looks and takes notice of the sons of men, and of all things done below: and this wish must be understood consistent with his omniscience, who sees and knows all persons and things, even what are done in the dark, and in the darkest days; for the darkness and the light are alike to him; and as consistent with his providence, which is continually exercised about persons and things on earth without any intermission, even on every day in the year; and was it to cease one day, hour, or moment, all would be dissolved, and be thrown into the utmost confusion and disorder: but Job means the smiles of his providence, which he wishes might be restrained on this day; that he would not cause his sun in the heavens to shine out upon it, nor send down gentle and refreshing showers of rain on it; in which sense he is said to care for and regard the land of Canaan,

Deuteronomy 11:11; where the same word is used as here; or the sense is, let it be so expunged from the days of the year, the when it is sought for, and if even it should be by God himself, let it not be found; or let him not "seek" y after it, to do any good upon it:

neither let the light shine upon it; the light of the sun, or the morning light, as the Targum, much less the light at noonday; even not the diurnal light, as Schmidt interprets it, in any part of the day: light is God's creature, and very delightful and desirable; the best things, and the most comfortable enjoyments, whether temporal, spiritual, or eternal, are expressed by it; and, on the other hand, a state of darkness is the most uncomfortable, and therefore the worst and most dismal things and states are signified by it.

x חשך "horrens", Caligo, Schultens. y אל ידרשהו "ne requirat", Montanus, &c.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let that day be darkness - Let it not be day; or, O, that it had not been day, that the sun had not risen, and that it had been night.

Let not God regard it from above - The word rendered here “regard” דרשׁ dârash means properly to seek or inquire after, to ask for or demand. Dr. Good renders it here, “Let not God inclose it,” but this meaning is not found in the Hebrew. Noyes renders it literally, “Let not God seek it.” Herder, “Let not God inquire after it.” The sense may be, either that Job wished the day sunk beneath the horizon, or in the deep waters by which he conceived the earth to be surrounded, and prays that God would not seek it and bring it from its dark abode; or he desired that God would never inquire after it, that it might pass from his remembrance and be forgotten. What we value, we would wish God to remember and bless; what we dislike, we would wish him to forget. This seems to be the idea here. Job hated that day, and he wished all other beings to forget it. He wished it blotted out, so that even God would never inquire after it, but regard it as if it had never been.

Neither let the light shine upon it - Let it be utter darkness; let not a ray ever reveal it. It will be seen here that Job first curses “the day.” The amplification of the curse with which he commenced in the first part of Job 3:3, continues through Job 3:4-5; and then he returns to the “night,” which also (in the latter part of Job 3:3) he wished to be cursed. His desires in regard to that unhappy night, he expresses in Job 3:6-10.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 3:4. Let that day be darkness — The meaning is exactly the same with our expression, "Let it be blotted out of the calendar." However distinguished it may have been, as the birthday of a man once celebrated for his possessions, liberality, and piety, let it no longer be thus noted; as he who was thus celebrated is now the sport of adversity, the most impoverished, most afflicted, and most wretched of human beings.

Let not God regard it from above — אל ידרשהו al yidreshehu, "Let Him not require it" - let Him not consider it essential to the completion of the days of the year; and therefore he adds, neither let the light shine upon it. If it must be a part of duration, let it not be distinguished by the light of the sun.


 
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