Job 10:21

10:21 before I depart, never to return, ¹ 

to the land of darkness

and the deepest shadow, ² 

Job 12:22

12:22 He reveals the deep things of darkness,

and brings deep shadows ³  into the light.

Job 17:12-13

17:12 These men ⁴  change ⁵  night into day;

they say, ⁶  ‘The light is near

in the face of darkness.’ ⁷ 

17:13 If ⁸  I hope for the grave to be my home,

if I spread out my bed in darkness,

Job 19:8

19:8 He has blocked ⁹  my way so I cannot pass,

and has set darkness ¹⁰  over my paths.

Job 22:11

22:11 why it is so dark you cannot see, ¹¹ 

and why a flood ¹²  of water covers you.

Job 23:17

23:17 Yet I have not been silent because of the darkness,

because of the thick darkness

that covered my face. ¹³ 

Job 29:3

29:3 when ¹⁴  he caused ¹⁵  his lamp ¹⁶ 

to shine upon my head,

and by his light

I walked ¹⁷  through darkness; ¹⁸ 

Job 34:22

34:22 There is no darkness, and no deep darkness,

where evildoers can hide themselves. ¹⁹ 

Job 37:19

37:19 Tell us what we should ²⁰  say to him.

We cannot prepare a case ²¹ 

because of the darkness.

[10:21]  ¹ sn The verbs are simple, “I go” and “I return”; but Job clearly means before he dies. A translation of “depart” comes closer to communicating this. The second verb may be given a potential imperfect translation to capture the point. The NIV offered more of an interpretive paraphrase: “before I go to the place of no return.”

[10:21]  ² tn See Job 3:5.

[12:22]  ³ tn The Hebrew word is traditionally rendered “shadow of death” (so KJV, ASV); see comments at Job 3:3.

[17:12]  ⁵ tn The verse simply has the plural, “they change.” But since this verse seems to be a description of his friends, a clarification of the referent in the translation is helpful.

[17:12]  ⁶ tn The same verb שִׂים (sim, “set”) is used this way in Isa 5:20: “…who change darkness into light.”

[17:12]  ⁷ tn The rest of the verse makes better sense if it is interpreted as what his friends say.

[17:12]  ⁸ tn This expression is open to alternative translations: (1) It could mean that they say in the face of darkness, “Light is near.” (2) It could also mean “The light is near the darkness” or “The light is nearer than the darkness.”

[17:13]  ⁷ tn The clause begins with אִם (’im) which here has more of the sense of “since.” E. Dhorme (Job, 253) takes a rather rare use of the word to get “Can I hope again” (see also GKC 475 §150.f for the caveat).

[19:8]  ⁹ tn The verb גָּדַר (gadar) means “to wall up; to fence up; to block.” God has blocked Job’s way so that he cannot get through. See the note on 3:23. Cf. Lam 3:7.

[19:8]  ¹⁰ tn Some commentators take the word to be חָשַׁךְ (hasak), related to an Arabic word for “thorn hedge.”

[22:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “or dark you cannot see.” Some commentators and the RSV follow the LXX in reading אוֹ (’o, “or”) as אוֹר (’or, “light”) and translate it “The light has become dark” or “Your light has become dark.” A. B. Davidson suggests the reading “Or seest thou not the darkness.” This would mean Job does not understand the true meaning of the darkness and the calamities.

[22:11]  ¹² tn The word שִׁפְעַת (shif’at) means “multitude of.” It is used of men, camels, horses, and here of waters in the heavens.

[23:17]  ¹³ tn This is a very difficult verse. The Hebrew text literally says: “for I have not been destroyed because of darkness, and because of my face [which] gloom has covered.” Most commentators omit the negative adverb, which gives the meaning that Job is enveloped in darkness and reduced to terror. The verb נִצְמַתִּי (nitsmatti) means “I have been silent” (as in Arabic and Aramaic), and so obviously the negative must be retained – he has not been silent.

[29:3]  ¹⁵ tn This clause is in apposition to the preceding (see GKC 426 §131.o). It offers a clarification.

[29:3]  ¹⁶ tn The form בְּהִלּוֹ (bÿhillo) is unusual; it should be parsed as a Hiphil infinitive construct with the elision of the ה (he). The proper spelling would have been with a ַ (patakh) under the preposition, reflecting הַהִלּוֹ (hahillo). If it were Qal, it would just mean “when his light shone.”

[29:3]  ¹⁷ sn Lamp and light are symbols of God’s blessings of life and all the prosperous and good things it includes.

[29:3]  ¹⁸ tn Here too the imperfect verb is customary – it describes action that was continuous, but in a past time.

[29:3]  ¹⁹ tn The accusative (“darkness”) is here an adverbial accusative of place, namely, “in the darkness,” or because he was successfully led by God’s light, “through the darkness” (see GKC 374 §118.h).

[34:22]  ¹⁷ 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.”

[37:19]  ¹⁹ tn The imperfect verb here carries the obligatory nuance, “what we should say?”

[37:19]  ²⁰ tn The verb means “to arrange; to set in order.” From the context the idea of a legal case is included.