Job 5:14

5:14 They meet with darkness in the daytime, ¹ 

and grope about ²  in the noontime as if it were night. ³ 

Job 18:5

18:5 “Yes, ⁴  the lamp ⁵  of the wicked is extinguished;

his flame of fire ⁶  does not shine.

Job 18:18

18:18 He is driven ⁷  from light into darkness

and is banished from the world.

Exodus 10:21-23

The Ninth Blow: Darkness

10:21 ⁸ The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward heaven ⁹  so that there may be ¹⁰  darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness so thick it can be felt.” ¹¹ 

10:22 So Moses extended his hand toward heaven, and there was absolute darkness ¹²  throughout the land of Egypt for three days. ¹³  10:23 No one ¹⁴  could see ¹⁵  another person, and no one could rise from his place for three days. But the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

Exodus 10:2

10:2 and in order that in the hearing of your son and your grandson you may tell ¹⁶  how I made fools ¹⁷  of the Egyptians ¹⁸  and about ¹⁹  my signs that I displayed ²⁰  among them, so that you may know ²¹  that I am the Lord.”

Exodus 6:18

6:18 The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. (The length of Kohath’s life was 133 years.)

Proverbs 4:19

4:19 The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness; ²² 

they do not know what causes them to stumble. ²³ 

Isaiah 8:21-22

8:21 They will pass through the land ²⁴  destitute and starving. Their hunger will make them angry, ²⁵  and they will curse their king and their God ²⁶  as they look upward. 8:22 When one looks out over the land, he sees ²⁷  distress and darkness, gloom ²⁸  and anxiety, darkness and people forced from the land. ²⁹ 

Jeremiah 13:16

13:16 Show the Lord your God the respect that is due him. ³⁰ 

Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. ³¹ 

Do it before you stumble ³²  into distress

like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. ³³ 

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

into the darkness and gloom of exile. ³⁴ 

Acts 13:10-11

13:10 and said, “You who are full of all deceit and all wrongdoing, ³⁵  you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness – will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? ³⁶  13:11 Now ³⁷  look, the hand of the Lord is against ³⁸  you, and you will be blind, unable to see the sun for a time!” Immediately mistiness ³⁹  and darkness came over ⁴⁰  him, and he went around seeking people ⁴¹  to lead him by the hand.

[5:14]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ sn The verse provides a picture of the frustration and bewilderment in the crafty who cannot accomplish their ends because God thwarts them.

[18:5]  ⁴ tn Hebrew גַּם (gam, “also; moreover”), in view of what has just been said.

[18:5]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.

[18:18]  ⁷ tn The verbs in this verse are plural; without the expressed subject they should be taken in the passive sense.

[10:21]  ⁸ sn The ninth plague is that darkness fell on all the land – except on Israel. This plague is comparable to the silence in heaven, just prior to the last and terrible plague (Rev 8:1). Here Yahweh is attacking a core Egyptian religious belief as well as portraying what lay before the Egyptians. Throughout the Bible darkness is the symbol of evil, chaos, and judgment. Blindness is one of its manifestations (see Deut 28:27-29). But the plague here is not blindness, or even spiritual blindness, but an awesome darkness from outside (see Joel 2:2; Zeph 1:15). It is particularly significant in that Egypt’s high god was the Sun God. Lord Sun was now being shut down by Lord Yahweh. If Egypt would not let Israel go to worship their God, then Egypt’s god would be darkness. The structure is familiar: the plague, now unannounced (21-23), and then the confrontation with Pharaoh (24-27).

[10:21]  ⁹ tn Or “the sky” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[10:21]  ¹⁰ sn The verb form is the jussive with the sequential vav – וִיהִי חֹשֶׁךְ (vihi khoshekh). B. Jacob (Exodus, 286) notes this as the only instance where Scripture says, “Let there be darkness” (although it is subordinated as a purpose clause; cf. Gen 1:3). Isa 45:7 alluded to this by saying, “who created light and darkness.”

[10:21]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term מוּשׁ (mush) means “to feel.” The literal rendering would be “so that one may feel darkness.” The image portrays an oppressive darkness; it was sufficiently thick to possess the appearance of substance, although it was just air (B. Jacob, Exodus, 286).

[10:22]  ¹² tn The construction is a variation of the superlative genitive: a substantive in the construct state is connected to a noun with the same meaning (see GKC 431 §133.i).

[10:22]  ¹³ sn S. R. Driver says, “The darkness was no doubt occasioned really by a sand-storm, produced by the hot electrical wind…which blows in intermittently…” (Exodus, 82, 83). This is another application of the antisupernatural approach to these texts. The text, however, is probably describing something that was not a seasonal wind, or Pharaoh would not have been intimidated. If it coincided with that season, then what is described here is so different and so powerful that the Egyptians would have known the difference easily. Pharaoh here would have had to have been impressed that this was something very abnormal, and that his god was powerless. Besides, there was light in all the dwellings of the Israelites.

[10:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a man…his brother.”

[10:23]  ¹⁵ tn The perfect tense in this context requires the somewhat rare classification of a potential perfect.

[10:2]  ¹⁶ tn The expression is unusual: תְּסַפֵּר בְּאָזְנֵי (tÿsapper bÿ’ozne, “[that] you may declare in the ears of”). The clause explains an additional reason for God’s hardening the heart of Pharaoh, namely, so that the Israelites can tell their children of God’s great wonders. The expression is highly poetic and intense – like Ps 44:1, which says, “we have heard with our ears.” The emphasis would be on the clear teaching, orally, from one generation to another.

[10:2]  ¹⁷ tn The verb הִתְעַלַּלְתִּי (hit’allalti) is a bold anthropomorphism. The word means to occupy oneself at another’s expense, to toy with someone, which may be paraphrased with “mock.” The whole point is that God is shaming and disgracing Egypt, making them look foolish in their arrogance and stubbornness (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:366-67). Some prefer to translate it as “I have dealt ruthlessly” with Egypt (see U. Cassuto, Exodus, 123).

[10:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “of Egypt.” The place is put by metonymy for the inhabitants.

[10:2]  ¹⁹ tn The word “about” is supplied to clarify this as another object of the verb “declare.”

[10:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “put” or “placed.”

[10:2]  ²¹ tn The form is the perfect tense with vav consecutive, וִידַעְתֶּם (vida’tem, “and that you might know”). This provides another purpose for God’s dealings with Egypt in the way that he was doing. The form is equal to the imperfect tense with vav (ו) prefixed; it thus parallels the imperfect that began v. 2 – “that you might tell.”

[4:19]  ²² sn The simile describes ignorance or spiritual blindness, sinfulness, calamity, despair.

[4:19]  ²³ tn Heb “in what they stumble.”

[8:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he will pass through it.” The subject of the collective singular verb is the nation. (See the preceding note.) The immediately preceding context supplies no antecedent for “it” (a third feminine singular suffix in the Hebrew text); the suffix may refer to the land, which would be a reasonable referent with a verb of motion. Note also that אֶרֶץ (’erets, “land”) does appear at the beginning of the next verse.

[8:21]  ²⁵ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[8:21]  ²⁶ tn Or “gods” (NAB, NRSV, CEV).

[8:22]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

[8:22]  ²⁸ tn The precise meaning of מְעוּף (mÿ’uf) is uncertain; the word occurs only here. See BDB 734 s.v. מָעוּף.

[8:22]  ²⁹ tn Heb “ and darkness, pushed.” The word מְנֻדָּח (mÿnudakh) appears to be a Pual participle from נדח (“push”), but the Piel is unattested for this verb and the Pual occurs only here.

[13:16]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ 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]  ³² tn Heb “your feet stumble.”

[13:16]  ³³ 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]  ³⁴ 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.

[13:10]  ³⁵ tn Or “unscrupulousness.”

[13:10]  ³⁶ sn “You who…paths of the Lord?” This rebuke is like ones from the OT prophets: Jer 5:27; Gen 32:11; Prov 10:7; Hos 14:9. Five separate remarks indicate the magician’s failings. The closing rhetorical question of v. 10 (“will you not stop…?”) shows how opposed he is to the way of God.

[13:11]  ³⁷ tn Grk “And now.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[13:11]  ³⁸ tn Grk “upon,” but in a negative sense.

[13:11]  ³⁹ sn The term translated mistiness here appears in the writings of the physician Galen as a medical technical description of a person who is blind. The picture of judgment to darkness is symbolic as well. Whatever power Elymas had, it represented darkness. Magic will again be an issue in Acts 19:18-19. This judgment is like that of Ananias and his wife in Acts 5:1-11.

[13:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “fell on.”

[13:11]  ⁴¹ tn The noun χειραγωγός (ceiragwgo") is plural, so “people” is used rather than singular “someone.”