God’s Word Translation
Job 10:21
21before I go away to a land of darkness and gloom,
Job 10:21 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
- New International Version (NIV)before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness,
- English Standard Version (ESV)before I go—and I shall not return— to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
- New King James Version (NKJV)Before I go to the place from which I shall not return, To the land of darkness and the shadow of death,
Context of Job 10:21
19Then it would be as if I had never existed, as if I had been carried from the womb to the tomb. 20“ ‘Isn’t my life short enough? So stop ⌞this⌟, and leave me alone. Let me smile a little before I go away to a land of darkness and gloom, 22to a dismal land of long shadows and confusion where light is as bright as darkness. I’ll never return.’ ”
Read all of Job 10Job 10:21 word by word
בְּטֶ֣רֶם אֵ֭לֵךְ וְלֹ֣א אָשׁ֑וּב אֶל־אֶ֖רֶץ חֹ֣שֶׁךְ וְצַלְמָֽוֶת׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 10:21
- Job 7:8The eye that watches over me will no longer see me. Your eye will look for me, but I’ll be gone.
- Job 14:10But a human dies and is powerless. A person breathes his last breath, and where is he?
- 2 Samuel 12:23But why should I fast now that he’s dead? Can I bring him back? ⌞Someday⌟ I’ll go to him, but he won’t come back to me.”
- 2 Samuel 14:14We are all going to die; we are all like water that is poured on the ground and can’t be gathered up. But doesn’t God forgive a person? He never plans to keep a banished person in exile.
- Isaiah 38:11I thought that I wouldn’t see the Lord in this world. Even with all the people in the world, I thought I would never see another person.
- Job 3:5Let the darkness and long shadows claim it as their own. Let a dark cloud hang over it. Let the gloom terrify it.
- Psalms 88:6You have put me in the bottom of the pit—in deep, dark places.
- Psalms 23:4Even though I walk through the dark valley of death, because you are with me, I fear no harm. Your rod and your staff give me courage.
- Jeremiah 2:6They didn’t ask, “Where is the Lord, who brought us from Egypt? He led us through the desert, through a wasteland and its pits, a land of drought and the shadow of death. No one lives there or travels there.”
Commentaries on Job 10:21
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 21I 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…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 21Before I go - from where “I shall not return.” To the grave, to the land of shades, to “That undiscovered country, from whose bourne No traveler returns.” To the land of darkness - This passage is important as furnishing an illustration of what was early understood about the regions of the dead. The essential idea here is that it was a land of darkness, of total and absolute night. This idea Job presents in a great variety of forms and phrases. He…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 14-22Verses 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 the work of his hands in…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 20-22Earlier, Job described "Sheol" as a somewhat peaceful place (3:13–19). Now, he calls it a land of darkness and gloom (see also 7:9–10; 14:7–22).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1-221. leave my complaint upon myself--rather, "I will give loose to my complaint" (Job 7:11).Read the comment
Topics related to Job 10:21
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 10
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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