Job 10 · Verse 21

Job 10:21

Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
Job 10:21, King James Version

Job 10:21 in other translations

BSBbefore I go—never to return— to a land of darkness and gloom,
WEBbefore I go where I will not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;
ASVBefore I go whence I shall not return, Even to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;
YLTBefore I go, and return not, Unto a land of darkness and death-shade,
DARBYBefore I go, and never to return, — to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
BBEBefore I go to the place from which I will not come back, to the land where all is dark and black,
WebsterBefore I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness, and the shades of death;

What does Job 10:21 mean?

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 21 I shall not return - I shall not return again from the dust to have a dwelling among men. To the land of darkness - See the notes on Job 3:5. There are here a crowd of obscure and dislocated terms, admirably expressive of the obscurity and uncertainty of the subject. What do we know of the state of separate spirits? What do we know of the spiritual world? How do souls exist separate from their respective bodies? Of what are they capable and what is their employment? Who can answer these questions? Perhaps nothing can be said much better of the state than is here said, a land of obscurity, like darkness. The shadow of death - A place where death rules, over which he projects his shadow, intercepting every light of every kind of life. Without any order, ולא סדרים velo sedarim, having no arrangements, no distinctions of inhabitants; the poor and the rich are there, the master and his slave, the king and the beggar, their bodies in equal corruption and disgrace, their souls distinguished only by their moral character. Stripped of their flesh, they stand in their naked simplicity before God in that place.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 10:14-22

Job did not deny that as a sinner he deserved his sufferings; but he thought that justice was executed upon him with peculiar rigour. His gloom, unbelief, and hard thoughts of God, were as much to be ascribed to Satan's inward temptations, and his anguish of soul, under the sense of God's displeasure, as to his outward trials, and remaining depravity. Our Creator, become in Christ our Redeemer also, will not destroy…

Read the full comment on Job 10:14-22 →

Job 10:21 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

בְּטֶ֣רֶםbe.Te.rem<in> beforeH2962
אֵ֭לֵךְ'E.lekhI will goH1980
וְלֹ֣אve.Lo'and notH3808
אָשׁ֑וּב'a.ShuvI will returnH7725
אֶל\־'el-toH413
אֶ֖רֶץ'E.retz[the] land ofH776
חֹ֣שֶׁךְCho.shekhdarknessH2822
וְצַלְמָֽוֶת\׃ve.tzal.Ma.vetand deep darknessH6757

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 10:21

  • Job 3:5

    Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

  • Job 16:22

    When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

  • 2 Samuel 12:23

    But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

  • Job 7:8-10

    The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

  • 2 Samuel 14:14

    For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

  • Psalms 23:4

    Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

  • Job 14:10-14

    But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! …

  • Psalms 88:11-12

    Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

  • Job 3:13

    For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

  • Isaiah 38:11

    I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

  • Psalms 88:6

    Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

  • Jeremiah 2:6

    Neither said they, Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
I go whence.
7:8-10; 14:10-14; 2Sa 12:23; 14:14; Isa 38:11
the land.
3:5; Ps 88:6,11,12
the shadow.
3:5; Ps 23:4; Jer 2:6

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Job 10:20

    Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

  • Job 10:21

    Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

  • Job 10:22

    A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

Read all of Job 10

Job 10:21 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Antes que vaya para no volver, á la tierra de tinieblas y de sombra de muerte;
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Avant que je m’en aille, pour ne plus revenir, dans le pays de l’obscurité et de l’ombre de la mort,
German
Elberfelder 1871		ehe ich hingehe in das Land der Finsternis und des Todesschattens,
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		antequam vadam, et non revertar, ad terram tenebrosam, et opertam mortis caligine: