Psalms 18:11

18:11 He shrouded himself in darkness, ¹ 

in thick rain clouds. ² 

Psalms 104:20

104:20 You make it dark and night comes, ³ 

during which all the beasts of the forest prowl around.

Psalms 105:28

105:28 He made it dark; ⁴ 

they did not disobey his orders. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 13:16

13:16 Show the Lord your God the respect that is due him. ⁶ 

Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. ⁷ 

Do it before you stumble ⁸  into distress

like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. ⁹ 

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

into the darkness and gloom of exile. ¹⁰ 

Ezekiel 32:8

32:8 I will darken all the lights in the sky over you,

and I will darken your land,

declares the sovereign Lord.

Amos 4:13

4:13 For here he is!

He ¹¹  formed the mountains and created the wind.

He reveals ¹²  his plans ¹³  to men.

He turns the dawn into darkness ¹⁴ 

and marches on the heights of the earth.

The Lord, the God who commands armies, ¹⁵  is his name!”

Matthew 27:45

Jesus’ Death

27:45 Now from noon until three, ¹⁶  darkness came over all the land. ¹⁷ 

[18:11]  ¹ tc Heb “he made darkness his hiding place around him, his covering.” 2 Sam 22:12 reads, “he made darkness around him coverings,” omitting “his hiding place” and pluralizing “covering.” Ps 18:11 may include a conflation of synonyms (“his hiding place” and “his covering”) or 2 Sam 22:12 may be the result of haplography/homoioarcton. Note that three successive words in Ps 18:11 begin with the Hebrew letter samek: סִתְרוֹ סְבִיבוֹתָיו סֻכָּתוֹ (sitro sÿvivotayv sukkato).

[18:11]  ² tc Heb “darkness of water, clouds of clouds.” The noun “darkness” (חֶשְׁכַת, kheshkhat) is probably a corruption of an original reading חשׁרת, a form that is preserved in 2 Sam 22:12. The latter is a construct form of חַשְׁרָה (khashrah, “sieve”) which occurs only here in the OT. A cognate Ugaritic noun means “sieve,” and a related verb חָשַׁר (khashar, “to sift”) is attested in postbiblical Hebrew and Aramaic. The phrase חַשְׁרַת מַיִם (khashrat mayim) means literally “a sieve of water.” It pictures the rain clouds as a sieve through which the rain falls to the ground (see F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry [SBLDS], 146, n. 33).

[104:20]  ³ tn Heb “you make darkness, so that it might be night.”

[105:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “he sent darkness and made it dark.”

[105:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “they did not rebel against his words.” Apparently this refers to Moses and Aaron, who obediently carried out God’s orders.

[13:16]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “your feet stumble.”

[13:16]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.

[4:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “For look, the one who.” This verse is considered to be the first hymnic passage in the book. The others appear at 5:8-9 and 9:5-6. Scholars debate whether these verses were originally part of a single hymn or three distinct pieces deliberately placed in each context for particular effect.

[4:13]  ¹² tn Or “declares” (NAB, NASB).

[4:13]  ¹³ tn Or “his thoughts.” The translation assumes that the pronominal suffix refers to God and that divine self-revelation is in view (see 3:7). If the suffix refers to the following term אָדַם (’adam, “men”), then the expression refers to God’s ability to read men’s minds.

[4:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he who makes dawn, darkness.” The meaning of the statement is unclear. The present translation assumes that allusion is made to God’s approaching judgment, when the light of day will be turned to darkness (see 5:20). Other options include: (1) “He makes the dawn [and] the darkness.” A few Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, add the conjunction (“and”) between the two nouns. (2) “He turns darkness into glimmering dawn” (NJPS). See S. M. Paul (Amos [Hermeneia], 154), who takes שָׁחַר (shakhar) as “blackness” rather than “dawn” and עֵיפָה (’efah) as “glimmering dawn” rather than “darkness.”

[4:13]  ¹⁵ tn Traditionally, “God of hosts.”

[27:45]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “from the sixth hour to the ninth hour.”

[27:45]  ¹⁷ sn This imagery has parallels to the Day of the Lord: Joel 2:10; Amos 8:9; Zeph 1:15.