1 Samuel 2:9

2:9 He watches over ¹  his holy ones, ² 

but the wicked are made speechless in the darkness,

for it is not by one’s own strength that one prevails.

Job 5:14

5:14 They meet with darkness in the daytime, ³ 

and grope about ⁴  in the noontime as if it were night. ⁵ 

Job 12:25

12:25 They grope about in darkness ⁶  without light;

he makes them stagger ⁷  like drunkards.

Job 18:5-6

18:5 “Yes, ⁸  the lamp ⁹  of the wicked is extinguished;

his flame of fire ¹⁰  does not shine.

18:6 The light in his tent grows dark;

his lamp above him is extinguished. ¹¹ 

Job 18:18

18:18 He is driven ¹²  from light into darkness

and is banished from the world.

Isaiah 59:9-10

Israel Confesses its Sin

59:9 For this reason deliverance ¹³  is far from us ¹⁴ 

and salvation does not reach us.

We wait for light, ¹⁵  but see only darkness; ¹⁶ 

we wait for ¹⁷  a bright light, ¹⁸  but live ¹⁹  in deep darkness. ²⁰ 

59:10 We grope along the wall like the blind,

we grope like those who cannot see; ²¹ 

we stumble at noontime as if it were evening.

Though others are strong, we are like dead men. ²² 

Jeremiah 13:16

13:16 Show the Lord your God the respect that is due him. ²³ 

Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. ²⁴ 

Do it before you stumble ²⁵  into distress

like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. ²⁶ 

Do it before he turns the light of deliverance you hope for

into the darkness and gloom of exile. ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 23:12

23:12 So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery.

They will stumble and fall headlong.

For I will bring disaster on them.

A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ²⁸ 

The Lord affirms it! ²⁹ 

Matthew 7:23

7:23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’ ³⁰ 

Matthew 15:14

15:14 Leave them! They are blind guides. ³¹  If someone who is blind leads another who is blind, ³²  both will fall into a pit.”

John 12:35

12:35 Jesus replied, ³³  “The light is with you for a little while longer. ³⁴  Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. ³⁵  The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

John 12:1

Jesus’ Anointing

12:1 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom he ³⁶  had raised from the dead.

John 2:11

2:11 Jesus did this as the first of his miraculous signs, ³⁷  in Cana ³⁸  of Galilee. In this way he revealed ³⁹  his glory, and his disciples believed in him. ⁴⁰ 

[2:9]  ¹ tn Heb “guards the feet of.” The expression means that God watches over and protects the godly in all of their activities and movements. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.

[2:9]  ² tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading the plural (“his holy ones”) rather than the singular (“his holy one”) of the Kethib.

[5:14]  ³ sn God so confuses the crafty that they are unable to fulfill their plans – it is as if they encounter darkness in broad daylight. This is like the Syrians in 2 Kgs 6:18-23.

[5:14]  ⁴ tn The verb מָשַׁשׁ (mashash) expresses the idea of groping about in the darkness. This is part of the fulfillment of Deut 28:29, which says, “and you shall grope at noonday as the blind grope in darkness.” This image is also in Isa 59:10.

[5:14]  ⁵ sn The verse provides a picture of the frustration and bewilderment in the crafty who cannot accomplish their ends because God thwarts them.

[12:25]  ⁶ tn The word is an adverbial accusative.

[12:25]  ⁷ tn The verb is the same that was in v. 24, “He makes them [the leaders still] wander” (the Hiphil of תָּעָה, ta’ah). But in this passage some commentators emend the text to a Niphal of the verb and put it in the plural, to get the reading “they reel to and fro.” But even if the verse closes the chapter and there is no further need for a word of divine causation, the Hiphil sense works well here – causing people to wander like a drunken man would be the same as making them stagger.

[18:5]  ⁸ tn Hebrew גַּם (gam, “also; moreover”), in view of what has just been said.

[18:5]  ⁹ sn The lamp or the light can have a number of uses in the Bible. Here it is probably an implied metaphor for prosperity and happiness, for the good life itself.

[18:5]  ¹⁰ tn The expression is literally “the flame of his fire,” but the pronominal suffix qualifies the entire bound construction. The two words together intensify the idea of the flame.

[18:6]  ¹¹ tn The LXX interprets a little more precisely: “his lamp shall be put out with him.”

[18:18]  ¹² tn The verbs in this verse are plural; without the expressed subject they should be taken in the passive sense.

[59:9]  ¹³ tn מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat), which refers to “justice” in the earlier verses, here refers to “justice from God,” or “vindication.” Because the people are unjust, God refuses to vindicate them before their enemies. See v. 11.

[59:9]  ¹⁴ sn The prophet speaks on behalf of the sinful nation and confesses its sins.

[59:9]  ¹⁵ sn Light here symbolizes prosperity and blessing.

[59:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “but, look, darkness”; NIV “but all is darkness.”

[59:9]  ¹⁷ tn The words “we wait for” are supplied in the translation; the verb is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[59:9]  ¹⁸ tn The plural noun form may indicate degree here.

[59:9]  ¹⁹ tn Or “walk about”; NCV “all we have is darkness.”

[59:9]  ²⁰ tn The plural noun form may indicate degree here.

[59:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “like there are no eyes.”

[59:10]  ²² tn Heb among the strong, like dead men.”

[13:16]  ²³ tn Heb “Give glory/respect to the Lord your God.” For this nuance of the word “glory” (כָּבוֹד, kavod), see BDB 459 s.v. כָּבוֹד 6.b and compare the usage in Mal 1:6 and Josh 7:19.

[13:16]  ²⁴ tn The words “of disaster” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to explain the significance of the metaphor to readers who may not be acquainted with the metaphorical use of light and darkness for salvation and joy and distress and sorrow respectively.

[13:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “your feet stumble.”

[13:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “you stumble on the mountains at twilight.” The added words are again supplied in the translation to help explain the metaphor to the uninitiated reader.

[13:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and while you hope for light he will turn it into deep darkness and make [it] into gloom.” The meaning of the metaphor is again explained through the addition of the “of” phrases for readers who are unacquainted with the metaphorical use of these terms.

[23:12]  ²⁸ tn For the last two lines see 11:23 and the notes there.

[23:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[7:23]  ³⁰ tn Grk “workers of lawlessness.”

[15:14]  ³¹ tc ‡ Most mss, some of which are significant, read “They are blind guides of the blind” (א¹ C L W Z Θ Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat). The shorter reading is read by א*^,2 B D 0237 Epiph. There is a distinct possibility of omission due to homoioarcton in א*; this manuscript has a word order variation which puts the word τυφλοί (tufloi, “blind”) right before the word τυφλῶν (tuflwn, “of the blind”). This does not explain the shorter reading, however, in the other witnesses, of which B and D are quite weighty. Internal considerations suggest that the shorter reading is original: “of the blind” was likely added by scribes to balance this phrase with Jesus’ following statement about the blind leading the blind, which clearly has two groups in view. A decision is difficult, but internal considerations here along with the strength of the witnesses argue that the shorter reading is more likely original. NA²⁷ places τυφλῶν in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[15:14]  ³² tn Grk “If blind leads blind.”

[12:35]  ³³ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”

[12:35]  ³⁴ tn Grk “Yet a little while the light is with you.”

[12:35]  ³⁵ sn The warning Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you operates on at least two different levels: (1) To the Jewish people in Jerusalem to whom Jesus spoke, the warning was a reminder that there was only a little time left for them to accept him as their Messiah. (2) To those later individuals to whom the Fourth Gospel was written, and to every person since, the words of Jesus are also a warning: There is a finite, limited time in which each individual has opportunity to respond to the Light of the world (i.e., Jesus); after that comes darkness. One’s response to the Light decisively determines one’s judgment for eternity.

[12:1]  ³⁶ tn Grk “whom Jesus,” but a repetition of the proper name (Jesus) here would be redundant in the English clause structure, so the pronoun (“he”) is substituted in the translation.

[2:11]  ³⁷ tn This sentence in Greek involves an object-complement construction. The force can be either “Jesus did this as,” or possibly “Jesus made this to be.” The latter translation accents not only Jesus’ power but his sovereignty too. Cf. also 4:54 where the same construction occurs.

[2:11]  ³⁸ map For location see Map1 C3; Map2 D2; Map3 C5.

[2:11]  ³⁹ tn Grk “in Cana of Galilee, and he revealed.”

[2:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “his disciples trusted in him,” or “his disciples put their faith in him.”