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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Isaiah 8:22

or stare at the ground, but they will see nothing but trouble and darkness, terrifying darkness into which they are being driven.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Blasphemy;   Colors;   Darkness;   Israel, Prophecies Concerning;   Thompson Chain Reference - Adversity;   Prosperity-Adversity;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Darkness;   Punishment of the Wicked, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Darkness;   Zebulun;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Darkness;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Isaiah;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Isaiah, Book of;   Rezin;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Assyria;   Siloah;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Anguish;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
They will look toward the earth and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.
Hebrew Names Version
and they shall look to the eretz, and see, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness [they shall be] driven away.
King James Version
And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.
English Standard Version
And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
New American Standard Bible
Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.
New Century Version
They will look around them at their land and see only trouble, darkness, and awful gloom. And they will be forced into the darkness.
Amplified Bible
Then they will look to the earth, they will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness and overwhelming night.
World English Bible
and they shall look to the earth, and see, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness [they shall be] driven away.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And when he shall looke to the earth, beholde trouble, and darkenes, vexation and anguish, and he is driuen to darkenes.
Legacy Standard Bible
Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be banished into thick darkness.
Berean Standard Bible
Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.
Contemporary English Version
and on earth, they will find only trouble and darkness, terrible trouble and deepest darkness.
Complete Jewish Bible
or [down] at the earth, they will see only trouble and darkness, anguished gloom and pervasive darkness. But there will be no more gloom for those who are now in anguish. In the past the land of Z'vulun and the land of Naftali were regarded lightly; but in the future he will honor the way to the lake, beyond the Yarden, Galil-of-the-Goyim.
Darby Translation
and they will look to the earth; and behold, trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they shall be driven into thick darkness.
Easy-to-Read Version
And when the captives turn their faces to the ground, there is only a depressing darkness closing in—the dark sadness of people forced to leave their country.
George Lamsa Translation
And they shall look to the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, tribulation and dimness shall scatter them; but he shall not afflict him who is in distress as in the former time.
Lexham English Bible
or look to the earth. But look! Distress and darkness, the gloom of affliction! And it will be thrust into darkness!
Literal Translation
And they shall look to the land. And, behold, trouble and darkness and gloom of anguish; and they are driven to darkness.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and beholde, there is trouble and darcknesse, vexacion is rounde aboute him, and the cloude of erroure And out of soch aduersite, shall he not escape.
American Standard Version
and they shall look unto the earth, and, behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness they shall be driven away.
Bible in Basic English
And he will be looking down on the earth, and there will be trouble and dark clouds, black night where there is no seeing.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
or look unto the earth, behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and outspread thick darkness. For is there no gloom to her that was stedfast? Now the former hath lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but the latter hath dealt a more grievous blow by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in the district of the nations.
King James Version (1611)
And they shall looke vnto the earth: and behold trouble and darkenesse, dimnesse of anguish; and they shall be driuen to darkenesse.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And beholde there is trouble and darknesse, dymnesse is rounde about him, & he shalbe driuen into darknesse.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and they shall look on the earth below, and behold severe distress, and darkness, affliction, and anguish, and darkness so that one cannot see; and he that is in anguish shall not be distressed only for a time.
English Revised Version
and they shall look unto the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness they shall be driven away.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And it schal loke to the erthe, and lo! tribulacioun, and derknessis, and vnbyndyng, ether discoumfort, and angwisch, and myist pursuynge; and it schal not mow fle awei fro his angwisch.
Update Bible Version
and they shall look to the earth, and see distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness [they shall be] driven away.
Webster's Bible Translation
And they shall look to the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and [they shall be] driven to darkness.
New English Translation
When one looks out over the land, he sees distress and darkness, gloom and anxiety, darkness and people forced from the land.
New King James Version
Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.
New Living Translation
and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.
New Life Bible
Then they will look to the earth and see trouble and darkness and suffering and will be driven out into darkness.
New Revised Standard
or they will look to the earth, but will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be thrust into thick darkness.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And unto the land, shall they look hard, And lo! distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, driven away!
Douay-Rheims Bible
And they shall look to the earth, and behold trouble and darkness, weakness and distress, and a mist following them, and they cannot fly away from their distress.
Revised Standard Version
and they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be thrust into thick darkness.
Young's Literal Translation
And unto the land it looketh attentively, And lo, adversity and darkness! -- Dimness, distress, and thick darkness is driven away, But not the dimness for which she is in distress!
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.

Contextual Overview

16 You, my disciples, are to guard and preserve the messages that God has given me. 17 The Lord has hidden himself from his people, but I trust him and place my hope in him. 18 Here I am with the children the Lord has given me. The Lord Almighty, whose throne is on Mount Zion, has sent us as living messages to the people of Israel. 19 But people will tell you to ask for messages from fortunetellers and mediums, who chirp and mutter. They will say, "After all, people should ask for messages from the spirits and consult the dead on behalf of the living." 20 You are to answer them, "Listen to what the Lord is teaching you! Don't listen to mediums—what they tell you cannot keep trouble away." 21 The people will wander through the land, discouraged and hungry. In their hunger and their anger they will curse their king and their God. They may look up to the sky 22 or stare at the ground, but they will see nothing but trouble and darkness, terrifying darkness into which they are being driven.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

look: Isaiah 5:30, Isaiah 9:1, 2 Chronicles 15:5, 2 Chronicles 15:6, Jeremiah 13:16, Jeremiah 30:6, Jeremiah 30:7, Amos 5:18-20, Zephaniah 1:14, Zephaniah 1:15, Matthew 8:12, Matthew 24:29, Luke 21:25, Luke 21:26, Jude 1:13

driven to darkness: Job 18:18, Proverbs 14:32, Jeremiah 23:12, Matthew 22:13

Reciprocal: Genesis 4:14 - driven Exodus 10:21 - darkness Job 15:22 - He believeth not Job 20:26 - darkness Job 22:11 - darkness Job 38:15 - from Psalms 88:12 - dark Proverbs 19:3 - fretteth Isaiah 9:19 - is the land Isaiah 24:11 - all joy Isaiah 50:11 - ye shall Joel 2:2 - A day of darkness Nahum 1:8 - darkness Revelation 16:10 - full

Cross-References

Genesis 8:8
Meanwhile, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had gone down,
Genesis 8:9
but since the water still covered all the land, the dove did not find a place to light. It flew back to the boat, and Noah reached out and took it in.
Genesis 8:11
It returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water had gone down.
Genesis 8:12
Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove once more; this time it did not come back.
Genesis 8:16
"Go out of the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives.
Genesis 8:17
Take all the birds and animals out with you, so that they may reproduce and spread over all the earth."
Genesis 8:20
Noah built an altar to the Lord ; he took one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird, and burned them whole as a sacrifice on the altar.
Genesis 45:6
This is only the second year of famine in the land; there will be five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor reaping.
Exodus 34:21
"You have six days in which to do your work, but do not work on the seventh day, not even during plowing time or harvest.
Jeremiah 5:24
You never thought to honor me, even though I send the autumn rains and the spring rains and give you the harvest season each year.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they shall look unto the earth,.... As persons in distress, upwards and downwards, backwards and forwards, on the right hand and on the left, particularly into the land of Judea; a land that used to flow with milk and honey, a land of light, plenty, and prosperity:

and behold trouble and darkness; adversity, and miseries of all kinds, expressed by a variety of words; and even words fail to express the tribulation of these times, which were such as were not from the beginning of the world, Matthew 24:22:

dimness of anguish; or "fleeing from affliction" e, multitudes everywhere fleeing from one place to another, to avoid the calamities coming upon them, Matthew 24:16:

and [they shall be] driven to darkness; when they endeavour to escape one calamity, they shall be driven and fall into another; the whole land shall be full of nothing else.

e מעוף a עוף "volare", Forerius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And they shall look unto the earth - They would look upward and find no relief, and then in despair cast their eyes to the earth to obtain help there. Yet equally in vain. The whole image is one of intense anguish brought on the nation for leaving the counselor the true God.

And behold ... - see the note at Isaiah 5:30.

Trouble - Anguish, oppression, צרה tsârâh, from צור tsûr, to oppress, to straiten, to afflict. This is a remarkable instance of the prophet Isaiah’s manner - of a rapid, impetuous, and bold style of utterance. He accumulates images; piles words on each other; and deepens the anxiety by each additional word, until we almost feel that we are enveloped by the gloom, and see objects of terror and alarm on every side.

Dimness of anguish - These words should be kept separate in the translation - צוּקה מעוּף me‛ûp tsûqâh, “darkness, oppression” - accumulated epithets to heighten the gloom and terror of the scene.

And they shall be driven to darkness - Hebrew, מנדה ואפלה va'ăpēlâh menudāch a darkness that is driven, or that is urged upon itself; that becomes condensed, accumulated, until it becomes terrible and frightful. The idea is that of a driving tempest, or an involving obscurity (מנדה menudāch from נדה nâdâh, to push, thrust, impel, urge on, as a driving storm). The prophet has thus accumulated every possible idea of gloom and obscurity, and probably there is not anywhere a more graphic description of gathering darkness and trouble, and of the consternation of those involved in it, than this. So fearful and terrific are the judgments of God when he comes forth to punish people!


 
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