Job 10 · Verse 22

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.
Job 10:22, King James Version

Job 10:22 in other translations

BSBto a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
WEBthe land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”
ASVThe land dark as midnight, The land of the shadow of death, without any order, And where the light is as midnight.
YLTA land of obscurity as thick darkness, Death-shade--and no order, And the shining is as thick darkness.'
DARBYA land of gloom, as darkness itself; of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as thick darkness.
BBEA land of thick dark, without order, where the very light is dark.
WebsterA land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shades of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

What does Job 10:22 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
22. The ideas of order and light, disorder and darkness, harmonize (Ge 1:2). Three Hebrew words are used for darkness; in Job 10:21 (1) the common word "darkness"; here (2) "a land of gloom" (from a Hebrew root, "to cover up"); (3) as "thick darkness" or blackness (from a root, expressing sunset). "Where the light thereof is like blackness." Its only sunshine is thick darkness. A bold figure of poetry. Job in a better frame has brighter thoughts of the unseen world. But his views at best wanted the definite clearness of the Christian's. Compare with his words here Re 21:23; 22:5; 2Ti 1:10.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 22 Where the light is as darkness - A palpable obscure: it is space and place, and has only such light or capability of distinction as renders "darkness visible." The following words of Sophocles convey the same idea: Ιω σκοτος εμοι φαος; "Thou darkness be my light." It is, as the Vulgate expresses it, Terra tenebrosa, et operta mortis caligine: Terra miseriae et tenebrarum, ubi umbra mortis, et nullus ordo, sed sempiternus horror inhabitat: "A murky land, covered with the thick darkness of death: a land of wretchedness and obscurities, where is the shadow of death, and no order, but sempiternal horror dwells everywhere." Or, as Coverdale expresses this last clause, Wheras is no ordre but terrible feare as in the darknesse. A duration not characterized or measured by any of the attributes of time; where there is no order of darkness and light, night and day, heat and cold, summer and winter. It is the state of the dead! The place of separate spirits! It is out of time, out of probation, beyond change or mutability. It is on the confines of eternity! But what is This? and where? Eternity! how can I form any conception of thee? In thee there is no order, no bounds, no substance, no progression, no change, no past, no present, no future! Thou art an indescribable something, to which there is no analogy in the compass of creation. Thou art infinity and incomprehensibility to all finite beings. Thou art what, living, I know not, and what I must die to know; and even then I shall apprehend no more of thee than merely that thou art E-T-E-R-N-I-T-Y!

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 10:22 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.

אֶ֤רֶץ'E.retz[the] land ofH776
עֵיפָ֨תָה\׀'ei.Fa.tahdarknessH5890
כְּמ֥וֹke.MolikeH3644
אֹ֗פֶל'O.felgloom ofH652
צַ֭לְמָוֶתTzal.ma.vetdeep darknessH6757
וְלֹ֥אve.Lo'and notH3808
סְדָרִ֗יםse.da.Rimorder<s>H5468
וַתֹּ֥פַעva.To.fa'and it shone forthH3313
כְּמוֹ\־ke.mov-likeH3644
אֹֽפֶל\׃\ \פ'O.felgloomH652

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

Cross references for Job 10:22

  • Psalms 88:12

    Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

  • Jeremiah 13:16

    Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

  • 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.

  • Psalms 44:19

    Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.

  • Job 38:17

    Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?

  • 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.

  • Luke 16:26

    And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

  • Job 34:22

    There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.

  • 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
the shadow of death.Where death projects his shadow, intercepting the light of life: without any order, having no arrangement, no distinction of inhabitants; the poor and the rich are there, the king and the beggar, their bodies in equal corruption and disgrace: where the light is as darkness, a palpable obscure, space and place, with only such a light or capability of distinction, as renders "darkness visible."
3:5; 34:22; 38:17; Ps 23:4; 44:19; 88:12; Jer 2:6; 13:16; Lu 16:26

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

Context

  • 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 10:22 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Tierra de oscuridad, lóbrega como sombra de muerte, sin orden, y que aparece como la oscuridad misma.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Terre sombre comme les ténèbres de l’ombre de la mort, et où il n’y a que confusion, et où la clarté est comme des ténèbres profondes.
German
Elberfelder 1871		in das Land, düster wie das Dunkel, das Land des Todesschattens und der Unordnung, und wo das Hellwerden dem Dunkel gleich ist!
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		terram miseriæ et tenebrarum, ubi umbra mortis et nullus ordo, sed sempiternus horror inhabitat.