3:5 Let darkness and the deepest
shadow 1 claim it; 2
let a cloud settle on it;
let whatever blackens the day 3 terrify it!
24:17 For all of them, 4 the morning is to them
like deep darkness;
they are friends with the terrors of darkness.
34:22 There is no darkness, and no deep darkness,
where evildoers can hide themselves. 5
5:8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;
he can turn the darkness into morning
and daylight 6 into night.
He summons the water of the seas
and pours it out on the earth’s surface.
The Lord is his name!
1:79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, 7
to guide our feet into the way 8 of peace.”
1 sn The translation of צַלְמָוֶת (tsalmavet, “shadow of death”) has been traditionally understood to indicate a dark, death shadow (supported in the LXX), but many scholars think it may not represent the best etymological analysis of the word. The word may be connected to an Arabic word which means “to be dark,” and an Akkadian word meaning “black.” It would then have to be repointed throughout its uses to צַלְמוּת (tsalmut) forming an abstract ending. It would then simply mean “darkness” rather than “shadow of death.” Or the word can be understood as an idiomatic expression meaning “gloom” that is deeper than חֹשֶׁךְ (khoshekh; see HALOT 1029 s.v. צַלְמָוֶת). Since “darkness” has already been used in the line, the two together could possibly form a nominal hendiadys: “Let the deepest darkness….” There is a significant amount of literature on this; one may begin with W. L. Michel, “SLMWT, ‘Deep Darkness’ or ‘Shadow of Death’?” BR 29 (1984): 5-20.
2 tn The verb is גָּאַל (ga’al, “redeem, claim”). Some have suggested that the verb is actually the homonym “pollute.” This is the reading in the Targum, Syriac, Vulgate, and Rashi, who quotes from Mal 1:7,12. See A. R. Johnson, “The Primary Meaning of ga’al,” VTSup 1 (1953): 67-77.
3 tn The expression “the blackness of the day” (כִּמְרִירֵי יוֹם, kimrire yom) probably means everything that makes the day black, such as supernatural events like eclipses. Job wishes that all ominous darknesses would terrify that day. It comes from the word כָּמַר (kamar, “to be black”), related to Akkadian kamaru (“to overshadow, darken”). The versions seem to have ignored the first letter and connected the word to מָרַר (marar, “be bitter”).
4 tn Heb “together.”
5 tn The construction of this colon uses the Niphal infinitive construct from סָתַר (satar, “to be hidden; to hide”). The resumptive adverb makes this a relative clause in its usage: “where the evildoers can hide themselves.”
6 tn Heb “darkens the day into night.”
7 sn On the phrases who sit in darkness…and…death see Isa 9:1-2; 42:7; 49:9-10.
8 tn Or “the path.”