Job 10:21

Contemporary English Version

before I travel to the land

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
before I go to a land of darkness and gloom,never to return.

Hebrew Names Version
Before I go where I shall not return from, To the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

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

English Standard Version
before I go—and I shall not return— to the land of darkness and deep shadow,

New Century Version
Soon I will leave; I will not return from the land of darkness and gloom,

New English Translation
before I depart, never to return, to the land of darkness and the deepest shadow,

Amplified Bible
Before I go—and I shall not return— To the land of darkness and the deep shadow [of death],

New American Standard Bible
Before I go—and I shall not return— To the land of darkness and deep shadow,

World English Bible
Before I go where I shall not return from, To the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

Geneva Bible (1587)
Before I goe and shall not returne, euen to the land of darkenesse and shadow of death:

Legacy Standard Bible
Before I go—and I shall not return—To the land of darkness and shadow of death,

Berean Standard Bible
before I go-never to return-to a land of darkness and gloom,

Complete Jewish Bible
before I go to the place of no return, to the land of darkness and death-dark gloom,

Darby Translation
Before I go, and never to return,—to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

Easy-to-Read Version
I am going soon to the land of no return, the place of death and darkness—

George Lamsa Translation
Before I go from whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death.

Good News Translation
I am going soon and will never come back— going to a land that is dark and gloomy,

Lexham English Bible
Before I go—and I will not return— to the land of darkness and deep shadow,

Literal Translation
before I go; and I shall not return; to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
afore I go thyther, from whence I shal not turne agayne: Namely, to that londe of darcknesse & shadowe of death:

American Standard Version
Before I go whence I shall not return, Even to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

Bible in Basic English
Before I go to the place from which I will not come back, to the land where all is dark and black,

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

King James Version (1611)
Before I goe whence I shall not returne, euen to the land of darknes and the shadow of death,

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Afore I go [thyther from whence] I shall not turne againe, euen to the lande of darknesse and shadowe of death:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
before I go whence I shall not return, to a land of darkness and gloominess;

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

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
bifor that Y go, and turne not ayen, to the derk lond, and hilid with the derknesse of deth, to the lond of wrecchidnesse and of derknessis;

Update Bible Version
Before I go from where I shall not return, [Even] to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

Webster's Bible Translation
Before I go [whence] I shall not return, [even] to the land of darkness, and the shades of death;

New King James Version
Before I go to the place from which I shall not return, To the land of darkness and the shadow of death,

New Living Translation
before I leave—never to return— for the land of darkness and utter gloom.

New Life Bible
before I go to a place from which I will not return. I will go to the land of darkness and shadow.

New Revised Standard
before I go, never to return, to the land of gloom and deep darkness,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Before I go, and not return, unto a land of darkness and death-shade:

Douay-Rheims Bible
Before I go and return no more, to a land that is dark and covered with the mist of death:

Revised Standard Version
before I go whence I shall not return, to the land of gloom and deep darkness,

Young's Literal Translation
Before I go, and return not, Unto a land of darkness and death-shade,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Before I go—and I shall not return— To the land of darkness and deep shadow,

Contextual Overview

¹⁴ but you catch and punish me each time I sin. ¹⁵ Guilty or innocent, I am condemned and ashamed because of my troubles. ¹⁶ No matter how hard I try, you keep hunting me down like a powerful lion. ¹⁷ You never stop accusing me; you become furious and attack over and over again. ¹⁸ Why did you let me be born? I would rather have died before birth ¹⁹ and been carried to the grave without ever breathing. ²⁰ I have only a few days left. Why don't you leave me alone? Let me find some relief, ²¹ before I travel to the land ²² of darkness and despair, the place of no return.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I go whence: Job 7:8-10, Job 14:10-14, 2 Samuel 12:23, 2 Samuel 14:14, Isaiah 38:11

the land: Job 3:5, Psalms 88:6, Psalms 88:11, Psalms 88:12

the shadow: Job 3:5, Psalms 23:4, Jeremiah 2:6

Reciprocal: Job 7:7 - no more see Job 7:9 - he Job 14:12 - So man Job 15:30 - depart Job 17:13 - the grave Job 28:3 - the stones Psalms 39:13 - spare Psalms 44:19 - with the Psalms 107:14 - brought Isaiah 9:2 - in the land Amos 5:20 - darkness

Cross-References

Numbers 24:24
Ships will come from Cyprus, bringing people who will invade the lands of Assyria and Eber. But finally, Cyprus itself will be ruined."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Before I go [whence] I shall not return,.... Before he went out of the world, the way of all flesh, to the grave, his long home, from whence there is no return to this world, and to the business and affairs of it; to a man's house, his family and his friends, to converse with them as before, there will be no return until the resurrection, which Job does not here deny, as some have thought; it was a doctrine he well understood, and strongly asserts in

Job 19:26; but this must be understood in the same sense as in Job 7:9;

[even] to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death; which describes not the state of the damned, as some Popish interpreters, carry it; for Job had no thought nor fear of such a state; but the grave, which is called "a land", or country, it being large and spacious, and full of inhabitants; a land of "darkness", a very dark one, where the body separated from the soul is deprived of all light; where the sun, moon, and stars, are never seen; nor is there the least crevice that light can enter in at, or be seen by those that dwell in those shades, which are "the shadow of death" itself; deadly shades, thick and gross ones, the darkest shades, where death itself is, or dead men are, destitute of light and life; where no pleasure, comfort, and conversation, can be had; and therefore a land in itself most undesirable.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 10:21. I shall not return — I shall not return again from the dust to have a dwelling among men.

To the land of darkness — 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.