Proverbs 4:19

4:19 The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness; ¹ 

they do not know what causes them to stumble. ² 

John 12:35

12:35 Jesus replied, ³  “The light is with you for a little while longer. ⁴  Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. ⁵  The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

[4:19]  ¹ sn The simile describes ignorance or spiritual blindness, sinfulness, calamity, despair.

[4:19]  ² tn Heb “in what they stumble.”

[12:35]  ³ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”

[12:35]  ⁴ tn Grk “Yet a little while the light is with you.”

[12:35]  ⁵ 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.