Job 10:22

to the land of utter darkness, like the deepest darkness, and the deepest shadow and disorder, ¹  where even the light ²  is like darkness.” ³ 

biblegateway Job 10:22

to the land of deepest night, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness."

biblegateway Job 10:22

The land of utter gloom as darkness itself, Of deep shadow without order, And which shines as the darkness."

biblegateway Job 10:22

It is a land as dark as midnight, a land of utter gloom where confusion reigns and the light is as dark as midnight.’"

biblegateway Job 10:22

And banished for good to the land of the dead, blind in the final dark?"

SABDAweb Job 10:22

A land of thick dark, without order, where the very light is dark.

bibleoremus Job 10:22

the land of gloom and chaos, where light is like darkness."

biblegateway Job 10:22

A land as dark as darkness itself , As the shadow of death, without any order, Where even the light is like darkness.’"

biblegateway Job 10:22

to the land of utter darkness, like the deepest darkness, and the deepest shadow and disorder, ¹  where even the light ²  is like darkness.” ³ 

¹ tn The word סֵדֶר (seder, “order”) occurs only here in the Bible. G. R. Driver found a new meaning in Arabic sadira, “dazzled by the glare” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 76-77); this would mean “without a ray of light.” This is accepted by those who see chaos out of place in this line. But the word “order” is well-attested in later Hebrew (see J. Carmignac, “Précisions aportées au vocabulaire d’hébreu biblique par La guerre des fils de lumière contre les fils de ténèbres,” VT 5 [1955]: 345-65).

² tn The Hebrew word literally means “it shines”; the feminine verb implies a subject like “the light” (but see GKC 459 §144.c).

³ tn The verse multiplies images for the darkness in death. Several commentators omit “as darkness, deep darkness” (כְּמוֹ אֹפֶל צַלְמָוֶת, kÿmo ’ofel tsalmavet) as glosses on the rare word עֵיפָתָה (’efatah, “darkness”) drawn from v. 21 (see also RSV). The verse literally reads: “[to the] land of darkness, like the deep darkness of the shadow of death, without any order, and the light is like the darkness.”