Job 10:21

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

Ver. 21. Before I go whence I shall not return] Before I go out of this world, never more to return hither to enjoy the comforts that are here to be had. Death is a departure hence, 1Pe 1:15 Luk 9:31. And so the ancients (Irenaeus, Clement, and others) used to call it. I shall change my place, but not my company, said that dying saint who had here walked with God in uprightness, and was now to bid adieu to all worldly interests (Tertul.). The old Romans were wont to say of a dead friend, Abiit, et reversurus est, He is gone, and will come again. It seems hereby that they had some dark notions of a resurrection; whence also their poets called a dead body a soul; - animamque sepulchro condimus (Virg. Æneid). The Hebrews did the like, Num 5:2; Num 9:10; Num 19:11 Hag 2:13-14, as having a more sure word of prophecy; and Job was clear in this point, firmly believing in the resurrection of his body, Job 19:26-27. It must needs be therefore that he speaks here of not returning into this world. See the like, Job 16:22 Psa 39:13 2Sa 12:23.

Even to the land of darkness, &c.] {See Trapp on "Job 10:22"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He speaketh thus in the person of a sinner, that is overcome with passions and with the feeling of God’s judgments, and therefore cannot apprehend in that state the mercies of God, and comfort of the resurrection.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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 Clarke 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's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

A land of darkness, as darkness itself,.... Not merely like it, but truly so; as gross thick darkness, like that of Egypt, that might be felt; even blackness of darkness, which is as dark as it possibly can be; not only dark, but darkness, extremely dark:

and of the shadow of death; which is repeated for the illustration and confirmation of it, as having in it all kind of darkness, and that to the greatest degree:

without any order, or "orders" (i); or vicissitudes and successions of day and night, summer and winter, heat and cold, wet and dry; or revolutions of sun, moon, and stars, or of the constellations, as Aben Ezra; and whither persons go without any order, either of age, sex, or station; sometimes a young man, sometimes an old man, and the one before the other; sometimes a man, sometimes a woman; sometimes a king, prince, and nobleman, and sometimes a peasant; sometimes a rich man, and sometimes a poor man; no order is observed, but as death seizes them they are brought and laid in the grave, and there is no order there; the bones and dust of one and the other in a short time are mixed together, and, there is no knowing to whom they belong, only by the omniscient God:

and where the light is as darkness; were there anything in the grave that could with any propriety be called light, even that is nothing but darkness; darkness and light are the same thing there: or when "it shineth it is darkness" (k); that is, when the sun shines brightest here, as at noon day, it is entire darkness in the grave; no light is discerned there, the rays of the sun cannot penetrate there; and could they, there is no visive faculty in the dead to receive them; all darkness is in those secret places.

(i) "et non ordines", Pagninus, Montanus, Bolducius, Mercerus; "sine ordinibus", Cocceius, Schmidt. (k) "splendet", Beza, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Next: Job Chapter 11

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Before 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 amplifies it, and uses apparently all the epithets which he can command to represent the utter and entire darkness of the place. The place referred to is not the grave, but the region beyond, the abode of departed spirits, the Hades of the ancients; and the idea here is, that it is a place where not a clear ray of light ever shines. That this was a common opinion of the ancients in regard to the world of departed spirits, is well known. Virgil thus speaks of those gloomy regions:

Oii, quibusimperium est animarum, umbraeque silentes,

Et Chaos, et Phlegethon, loca nocte tacentia late,

Sit mihi fas audita loqui; slt numine vestro

Pandere res alta terra et caligine mersas.

Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram,

Perque domos Ditis vacuas, et inania regna:

Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna

Est iter in silvis: ubi coelum condidit umbra

Jupiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem

Aeneid vi. 259ff

A similar view of Hades was held by the Greeks. Thus, Theognis, 1007:

Ὠς μάκαρ εὐδυίμων τε και ὄλβιος, ὅστις ἄπειρος

Ἄθλων, εἰς ἥ δου δῶμα μέλαν κατέβη.

Hōs makar eudaimōn te kai olbios, hostis apeiros

Athlōn eis h' dou dōma melan katebē.

There is nowhere to be found, however, a description which for intensity and emphasis of expression surpasses this of Job.

Shadow of death - See this phrase explained in the note at Job 3:5.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Death, to the grave, or to hell, (Calmet) if my sins deserve it. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

To the place whence I shall not return into this world and life: see Job 7:9,10.

Darkness and the shadow of death, i.e. a dark and dismal shade: See Poole "Job 3:5".

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. Whence I shall not return —

The undiscovered country, from whose bourne

No traveller returns. — Hamlet, Job_3:1.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Before I go whence I shall not return. (comp. Job_7:9; and see 2Sa_12:23) Even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death. Job"s idea of the receptacle of the dead, while it has some analogies with the Egyptian under-world, and even more with the Greek and Roman conceptions of Hades or Orcus, was probably derived from Babylonia, or Chaldea, on which the land that he inhabited bordered. (Job_1:17) It was within the earth, consequently dark and sunless (compare the Umbrae of the Romans, and Euripides"s nekrwn keuymwna kai skotou pulav ), deep, (Job_11:8) dreary, fastened with belts and. (Job_17:16) The Babylonians spoke of it as "the abode of darkness and famine, where earth was men"s food, and their nourishment clay; where light was not seen, but in darkness they dwelt; where ghosts, like birds, fluttered their wings; and where, on the doors and on the doorposts, the dust lay undisturbed" (Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. 1. p. 118).

Vers. 21, 22. The land of darkness.

I DEATH APPEARS TO LEAD TO A LAND OF DARKNESS.

1. We cannot see what lies beyond. Science cannot penetrate this mystery of mysteries. At best she can but dimly surmise the existence of an "unseen universe." Philosophy may reason of the soul"s immortality, but can throw no light into the tomb. The mind dashes itself in vain against the awful wall that separates it from the world beyond. One by one our most intimate friends leave us, and the dark doors open to receive them, but never a ray of light comes out, and "the rest is silence.

2. We shrink by natural instinct from death. Reason as we may, the grave is a horror to us. We people the land of the dead with terrors of the imagination. La Rochefoucauld says, "Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily," "Death is a fearful thing. ...To die, and go we know not where To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed lee; To be imprison"d in the viewless winds, And blown with restless violence round about The pendent world, or to be worse than worst Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts Imagine howling! too horrible! The weariest and most loathed worldly life That ago, ache, penury, and imprisonment Can lay on nature, is a paradise To what we fear of death. (Shakespeare.)

II WHETHER DEATH WILL LEAD TO A LAND OF DARKNESS DEPENDS ON OUR USE OF LIFE. Nature, science, philosophy, all leave the future obscure. But God has lifted the veil in the gospel enough to give us guidance, warning, and consolation. We learn from the revelation of Christ that the unseen land need be no place of terror and darkness. What it will be depends on our present conduct.

1. Death leads the impenitent sinner into a land of darkness. For him the horrors of imagination cannot be too black. No one can conceive the chill desolation of the "outer darkness," the dread despair of seeing the "door shut" on a rejected soul. The darkness will consist in separation from God, from blessed companionship, from joy, from life for the future existence of the lost is never called a future life. The dolorous words of Job are not too strong for the fate of lost souls.

2. Death leads the people of God into a land of light. The old-world gloom of the grove is dissipated by Christ, who has "brought life and immortality to light through the gospel". (2Ti_1:10) Here we have a great advance from the Old Testament standpoint, "The resurrection of Christ has thrown a flood of light into the regions beyond. It has shown us a "land of the leal," where the blessed dwell in light eternal St. Paul could even desire to depart and be with Christ, counting it gain to. (Php_1:21-23) All who have turned from sin to Christ may despise the darkness of death, for this is but the portal to the home of eternal life. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

before I go While I am still alive, and the time for me to die has not yet arrived, desist from me and I will rest.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.