Job 10:22

New Living Translation

It is a land as dark as midnight, a land of gloom and confusion, where even the light is dark as midnight.'"

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
It is a land of blackness like the deepest darkness,gloomy and chaotic,where even the light is like the darkness.”

Hebrew Names Version
The land dark as midnight, Of the shadow of death, without any order, Where the light is as midnight.'"

King James Version
A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

English Standard Version
the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness."

New Century Version
the land of darkest night, from the land of gloom and confusion, where even the light is darkness."

New English Translation
to the land of utter darkness, like the deepest darkness, and the deepest shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness."

Amplified Bible
The [sunless] land of utter gloom as darkness itself, [The land] of the shadow of death, without order, And [where] it shines as [thick] darkness."

New American Standard Bible
The land of utter gloom like darkness itself, Of deep shadow without order, And it shines like darkness."

World English Bible
The land dark as midnight, Of the shadow of death, without any order, Where the light is as midnight.'"

Geneva Bible (1587)
Into a land, I say, darke as darknes it selfe, and into the shadow of death, where is none order, but the light is there as darkenesse.

Legacy Standard Bible
The land of utter gloom as the thick darkness itself,Of the shadow of death, without order,And which shines as the thick darkness."

Berean Standard Bible
to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness."

Contemporary English Version
of darkness and despair, the place of no return.

Complete Jewish Bible
a land of gloom like darkness itself, of dense darkness and utter disorder, where even the light is dark.'"

Darby Translation
A land of gloom, as darkness itself; of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as thick darkness.

Easy-to-Read Version
that land of darkest night, of shadows and confusion, where even the light is darkness.'"

George Lamsa Translation
A land of loneliness and deep darkness, and of the shadow of death, without any order or time; wearisome like a deep pit.

Good News Translation
a land of darkness, shadows, and confusion, where the light itself is darkness.

Lexham English Bible
to the land of darkness, like the darkness of a deep shadow and chaos, so that it shines forth like darkness.'"

Literal Translation
a land of obscurity, the darkness of the shadow of death, and without any order; even the shining is as darkness.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
yee into that darck clowdy londe & deadly shadowe, where as is no ordre, but terrible feare as in the darcknesse.

American Standard Version
The land dark as midnight, The land of the shadow of death, without any order, And where the light is as midnight.

Bible in Basic English
A land of thick dark, without order, where the very light is dark.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
A land of thick darkness, as darkness itself; a land of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

King James Version (1611)
A land of darknes, as darknes it selfe, and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkenes.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Yea a lande as darke as darknesse it selfe, and into the shadowe of death where is none order, but the light is there as darknesse.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
to a land of perpetual darkness, where there is no light, neither can any one see the life of mortals.

English Revised Version
A land of thick darkness, as darkness itself; a land of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
where is schadewe of deeth, and noon ordre, but euerlastynge hidousnesse dwellith.

Update Bible Version
The land dark as midnight, [The land] of the shadow of death, without any order, And where the light is as midnight.

Webster's Bible Translation
A land of darkness, as darkness [itself]; [and] of the shades of death, without any order, and [where] the light [is] as darkness.

New King James Version
A land as dark as darkness itself, As the shadow of death, without any order, Where even the light is like darkness."'

New Life Bible
It is the land of complete darkness and shadow and trouble, where the light is darkness."

New Revised Standard
the land of gloom and chaos, where light is like darkness."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
A land of obscurity, like thick darkness, of death-shade and disorder, and which shineth like thick darkness.

Douay-Rheims Bible
A land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and no order, but everlasting horror dwelleth.

Revised Standard Version
the land of gloom and chaos, where light is as darkness."

Young's Literal Translation
A land of obscurity as thick darkness, Death-shade -- and no order, And the shining [is] as thick darkness.'

New American Standard Bible (1995)
The land of utter gloom as darkness itself, Of deep shadow without order, And which shines as the darkness."

Contextual Overview

¹⁴ was to watch me, and if I sinned, you would not forgive my guilt. ¹⁵ If I am guilty, too bad for me; and even if I'm innocent, I can't hold my head high, because I am filled with shame and misery. ¹⁶ And if I hold my head high, you hunt me like a lion and display your awesome power against me. ¹⁷ Again and again you witness against me. You pour out your growing anger on me and bring fresh armies against me. ¹⁸ "‘Why, then, did you deliver me from my mother's womb? Why didn't you let me die at birth? ¹⁹ It would be as though I had never existed, going directly from the womb to the grave. ²⁰ I have only a few days left, so leave me alone, that I may have a moment of comfort ²¹ before I leave—never to return— for the land of darkness and utter gloom. ²² It is a land as dark as midnight, a land of gloom and confusion, where even the light is dark as midnight.'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the shadow of death: Where death projects his shadow, intercepting the light of life: without any order, having no arrangement, no distinction of inhabitants; the poor and the rich are there, the king and the beggar, their bodies in equal corruption and disgrace: where the light is as darkness, a palpable obscure, space and place, with only such a light or capability of distinction, as renders "darkness visible." Job 3:5, Job 34:22, Job 38:17, Psalms 23:4, Psalms 44:19, Psalms 88:12, Jeremiah 2:6, Jeremiah 13:16, Luke 16:26

Reciprocal: Job 7:7 - no more see Job 14:12 - So man Job 15:30 - depart Job 17:13 - the grave Job 18:18 - He shall be driven Job 28:3 - the stones Psalms 107:14 - brought Ecclesiastes 11:8 - yet Amos 5:20 - darkness Matthew 4:16 - shadow Luke 1:79 - and

Cross-References

Genesis 9:26
Then Noah said, "May the Lord , the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant!

Genesis 10:1
This is the account of the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah. Many children were born to them after the great flood.

Genesis 10:9
Since he was the greatest hunter in the world, his name became proverbial. People would say, "This man is like Nimrod, the greatest hunter in the world."

Genesis 10:17
Hivites, Arkites, Sinites,

Genesis 10:27
Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,

Numbers 23:7
This was the message Balaam delivered: "Balak summoned me to come from Aram; the king of Moab brought me from the eastern hills. ‘Come,' he said, ‘curse Jacob for me! Come and announce Israel's doom.'

2 Kings 15:19
Then King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria invaded the land. But Menahem paid him thirty-seven tons of silver to gain his support in tightening his grip on royal power.

Job 1:17
While he was still speaking, a third messenger arrived with this news: "Three bands of Chaldean raiders have stolen your camels and killed your servants. I am the only one who escaped to tell you."

Isaiah 11:11
In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to bring back the remnant of his people— those who remain in Assyria and northern Egypt; in southern Egypt, Ethiopia, and Elam; in Babylonia, Hamath, and all the distant coastlands.

Isaiah 21:2
I see a terrifying vision: I see the betrayer betraying, the destroyer destroying. Go ahead, you Elamites and Medes, attack and lay siege. I will make an end to all the groaning Babylon caused.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

A land of darkness, as darkness [itself],.... Not merely like it, but truly so; as gross thick darkness, like that of Egypt, that might be felt; even blackness of darkness, which is as dark as it possibly can be; not only dark, but darkness, extremely dark:

[and] of the shadow of death; which is repeated for the illustration and confirmation of it, as having in it all kind of darkness, and that to the greatest degree:

without any order, or "orders" i; or vicissitudes and successions of day and night, summer and winter, heat and cold, wet and dry; or revolutions of sun, moon, and stars, or of the constellations, as Aben Ezra; and whither persons go without any order, either of age, sex, or station; sometimes a young man, sometimes an old man, and the one before the other; sometimes a man, sometimes a woman; sometimes a king, prince, and nobleman, and sometimes a peasant; sometimes a rich man, and sometimes a poor man; no order is observed, but as death seizes them they are brought and laid in the grave, and there is no order there; the bones and dust of one and the other in a short time are mixed together, and, there is no knowing to whom they belong, only by the omniscient God:

and [where] the light [is] as darkness; were there anything in the grave that could with any propriety be called light, even that is nothing but darkness; darkness and light are the same thing there: or when "it shineth it is darkness" k; that is, when the sun shines brightest here, as at noon day, it is entire darkness in the grave; no light is discerned there, the rays of the sun cannot penetrate there; and could they, there is no visive faculty in the dead to receive them; all darkness is in those secret places.

i ולא סדרים "et non ordines", Pagninus, Montanus, Bolducius, Mercerus; "sine ordinibus", Cocceius, Schmidt. k ותפע "splendet", Beza, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A land of darkness - The word used here (עיפה ‛êyphâh) is different from that rendered “darkness” השׁך chôshek in the previous verse. That is the common word to denote darkness; this seldom occurs. It is derived from עוּף ‛ûph, to fly; and then to cover as with wings; and hence, the noun means that which is shaded or dark; Amos 4:13; compare Job 17:13; Isaiah 8:22; Isaiah 9:1.

As darkness itself - This is still another word אפל 'ôphel though in our common version but one term is used. We have not the means in our language of marking different degrees of obscurity with the accuracy with which the Hebrews did it. The word used here אפל 'ôphel denotes a THICK darkness - such as exists when the sun is set - from אפל 'aphêl, to go down, to set. It is poetic, and is used to denote intense and deep darkness; see Job 3:6.

And of the shadow of death - I would prefer reading this as connected with the previous word - “the deep darkness of the shadow of death.” The Hebrew will bear this, and indeed it is the obvious construction.

Without any order - The word rendered order (סדרים sedārı̂ym) is in the plural. It is from סדר, obsolete, to place in a row or order, to arrange. The meaning is, that everything was mingled together as in chaos, and all was confusion. Milton has used similar language:

- “A vast immeasurable abyss.”

- “dark, wasteful, wild.”

Ovid uses similar language in speaking of chaos: “Unus chaos, rudis indigestaque moles.”

And where the light is as darkness - This is a very striking and graphic expression. It means that there is no pure and clear light. Even all the light that shines there is dark, sombre, gloomy - like the little light of a total eclipse, which seems to be darkness itself, and which only serves to render the darkness more distressing. Compare Milton:

“A dungeon horrible on all sides round,

As one great furnace flamed, yet from those flames

No light; but rather darkness visible

Served only to discover sights of woe.”

Par. Lost, 1.

The Hebrew here literally is, “And it shines forth (יתפע yatopha‛) as darkness:” that is, the very shining of the light there, if there is any, is like darkness! Such was the view of Job of the abodes of the dead - even of the pious dead. No wonder he shrank back from it, and wished to live. Such is the prospect of the grave to man, until Christianity comes and reveals a brighter world beyond the grave - a world that is all light. That darkness is now scattered. A clear light shines even around the grave, and beyond there is a world where all is light, and where “there is no night,” and where all is one bright eternal day; Revelation 21:23; Revelation 22:5. O had Job been favored with these views of heaven, he would not have thus feared to die!

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 10:22. Where the light is as darkness. — A palpable obscure: it is space and place, and has only such light or capability of distinction as renders "darkness visible." The following words of Sophocles convey the same idea: Ιω σκοτος εμοι φαος; "Thou darkness be my light." It is, as the Vulgate expresses it, Terra tenebrosa, et operta mortis caligine: Terra miseriae et tenebrarum, ubi umbra mortis, et nullus ordo, sed sempiternus horror inhabitat: "A murky land, covered with the thick darkness of death: a land of wretchedness and obscurities, where is the shadow of death, and no order, but sempiternal horror dwells everywhere." Or, as Coverdale expresses this last clause, Wheras is no ordre but terrible feare as in the darknesse. A duration not characterized or measured by any of the attributes of time; where there is no order of darkness and light, night and day, heat and cold, summer and winter. It is the state of the dead! The place of separate spirits! It is out of time, out of probation, beyond change or mutability. It is on the confines of eternity! But what is THIS? and where? Eternity! how can I form any conception of thee? In thee there is no order, no bounds, no substance, no progression, no change, no past, no present, no future! Thou art an indescribable something, to which there is no analogy in the compass of creation. Thou art infinity and incomprehensibility to all finite beings. Thou art what, living, I know not, and what I must die to know; and even then I shall apprehend no more of thee than merely that thou art E-T-E-R-N-I-T-Y!