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Contemporary English Version
Job 3:5
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
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- InternationalParallel Translations
May darkness and gloom reclaim it,and a cloud settle over it.May what darkens the day terrify it.
Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.
Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Let darkness and gloom have that day. Let a cloud hide it. Let thick darkness cover its light.
Let darkness and the deepest shadow claim it; let a cloud settle on it; let whatever blackens the day terrify it!
"Let darkness and gloom claim it for their own; Let a cloud settle upon it; Let all that blackens the day terrify it (the day that I was born).
"May darkness and black gloom claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it.
Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.
But let darkenesse, and the shadowe of death staine it: let the cloude remayne vpon it, and let them make it fearefull as a bitter day.
Let darkness and shadow of death redeem it;Let a cloud dwell upon it;Let the blackness of the day terrify it.
May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
"As for that night, may thick darkness seize it, may it not be joined to the days of the year, may it not be numbered among the months;
Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it; let clouds dwell upon it; let darkeners of the day terrify it.
I wish that bitter day had remained as dark as death, covered with the darkest clouds.
Let the darkness and the shadow of death cover it; let a cloud overshadow it; let those whose days are bitter be terrified by it.
Make it a day of gloom and thick darkness; cover it with clouds, and blot out the sun.
Let darkness and deep shadow claim it; let clouds settle on it; let them terrify it with the blackness of day.
Let darkness and the shadow of death seize upon it. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that blackens the day terrify it.
but be couered with darcknesse, and the shadowe of death. Let the dymme cloude fall vpon it, and let it be lapped in with sorowe.
Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own; Let a cloud dwell upon it; Let all that maketh black the day terrify it.
Let the dark and the black night take it for themselves; let it be covered with a cloud; let the dark shades of day send fear on it.
But let it be stayned with darknesse and the shadowe of death, let the [dimme] cloude fall vpon it, whiche may make it terrible as a most bitter day.
Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own; let a cloud dwell upon it; let all that maketh black the day terrify it.
Let darkenes and the shadowe of death staine it, let a cloud dwell vpon it, let the blacknes of the day terrifie it.
But let darkness and the shadow of death seize it; let blackness come upon it;
Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own; let a cloud dwell upon it; let all that maketh black the day terrify it.
Derknessis make it derk, and the schadewe of deeth and myist occupie it; and be it wlappid with bittirnesse.
Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own; Let a cloud dwell on it; Let all that makes black the day terrify it.
Let darkness and the shades of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it.
Let the darkness and utter gloom claim that day for its own. Let a black cloud overshadow it, and let the darkness terrify it.
Let darkness and a heavy shadow take it for their own. Let a cloud come upon it. Let the darkness of the day bring fear upon it.
Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds settle upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Let darkness and death-shade buy it back, May there settle down upon it a cloud, Let a day's dark eclipse cause it terror:
Let darkness, and the shadow of death, cover it, let a mist overspread it, and let it be wrapped up in bitterness.
Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Let darkness and death-shade redeem it, Let a cloud tabernacle upon it, Let them terrify it as the most bitter of days.
"Let darkness and black gloom claim it; Let a cloud settle on it; Let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
the shadow: Job 10:21, Job 10:22, Job 16:16, Job 24:17, Job 28:3, Job 38:17, Psalms 23:4, Psalms 44:19, Psalms 107:10, Psalms 107:14, Isaiah 9:2, Jeremiah 2:6, Jeremiah 13:16, Amos 5:8, Matthew 4:16, Luke 1:79
stain it: or, challenge it
let a cloud: Deuteronomy 4:11, Ezekiel 30:3, Ezekiel 34:12, Joel 2:2, Hebrews 12:18
let the blackness: or, let them terrify it, as those who have a bitter day, Jeremiah 4:28, Amos 8:10
Reciprocal: Judges 18:25 - angry Job 12:22 - bringeth Job 18:2 - mark Job 34:22 - nor
Cross-References
except the one that has the power to let you know the difference between right and wrong. If you eat any fruit from that tree, you will die before the day is over!"
The woman answered, "God said we could eat fruit from any tree in the garden,
except the one in the middle. He told us not to eat fruit from that tree or even to touch it. If we do, we will die."
The woman stared at the fruit. It looked beautiful and tasty. She wanted the wisdom that it would give her, and she ate some of the fruit. Her husband was there with her, so she gave some to him, and he ate it too.
Right away they saw what they had done, and they realized they were naked. Then they sewed fig leaves together to make something to cover themselves.
The man answered, "I was naked, and when I heard you walking through the garden, I was frightened and hid!"
The Lord God then asked the woman, "What have you done?" "The snake tricked me," she answered. "And I ate some of that fruit."
So the Lord God said to the snake: "Because of what you have done, you will be the only animal to suffer this curse— For as long as you live, you will crawl on your stomach and eat dirt.
You and this woman will hate each other; your descendants and hers will always be enemies. One of hers will strike you on the head, and you will strike him on the heel."
The Lord said, "These people now know the difference between right and wrong, just as we do. But they must not be allowed to eat fruit from the tree that lets them live forever."
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it,.... Let there be such darkness on it as on persons when dying, or in the state of the dead; hence the sorest afflictions, and the state of man in unregeneracy, are compared unto it, Psalms 23:4; let there be nothing but foul weather, dirt, and darkness in it, which may make it very uncomfortable and undesirable; some render the word, "let darkness and [the] shadow of death redeem it" z, challenge and claim it as their own, and let light have no share or property in it:
let a cloud dwell upon it; as on Mount Sinai when the law was given; a thick dark cloud, even an assemblage of clouds, so thick and close together, that they seem but one cloud which cover the whole heavens, and obscure them, and hinder the light of the sun from shining on the earth; and this is wished to abide not for an hour or two, but to continue all the day:
let the blackness of the day terrify it; let it be frightful to itself; or rather, let the blackness be such, or the darkness of it such gross darkness, like that as was felt by the Egyptians; that the inhabitants of the earth may be terrified with it, as Moses and the Israelites were at Mount Sinai, at the blackness, tempest, thunders, and lightnings, there seen and heard: as some understand this of black vapours exhaled by the sun, with which the heavens might be filled, so others of sultry weather and scorching heat, which is intolerable: others render the words, "let them terrify it as the bitternesses of the day" a; either with bitter cursings on it, or through bitter calamities in it; or, "as those [who have] a bitter b day", as in the margin of our Bibles, and in others.
z יגאלהו "vindicassent", Junius Tremellius "vendicent", Cocceius; "vindicent", Schultens. a כמרירי יום "tanquam amaritudines dici", Schmidt, Michaelis; "velut amarulenta diei", Schultens; so the Targum. b "Velut amari diei", Mercerus; "tanquam amari diei", Montanus.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Let darkness and the shadow of death - The Hebrew word צלמות tsalmâveth is exceedingly musical and poetical. It is derived from צל tsêl, “a shadow,” and מות mâveth, “death;” and is used to denote the deepest darkness; see the notes at Isaiah 9:2. It occurs frequently in the sacred Scriptures; compare Job 10:21-22; Psalms 23:4; Job 12:22; Job 16:16; Job 24:17; Job 34:22; Job 38:17; Amos 5:8; Jeremiah 2:6. It is used to denote the abode of departed spirits, described by Job as “a land of darkness, as darkness itself; of the shadow of death without any order, and where the light is as darkness;” Job 10:21-22. The idea seems to have been, that “death” was a dark and gloomy object that obstructed all light, and threw a baleful shade afar, and that that melancholy shade was thrown afar over the regions of the dead. The sense here is, that Job wished the deepest conceivable darkness to rest upon it.
Stain it - Margin, or “challenge.” Vulgate, “obscure it.” Septuagint, “take or occupy it,” Ἐκλάβοι Eklaboi, Dr. Good, “crush it.” Noyes, “redeem it.” Herder, “seize it.” This variety of interpretation has arisen in part from the twofold signification of the word used here, גאל gā'al. The word means either to “redeem,” or to “defile,” “pollute,” “stain.” These senses are not very closely connected, and I know not how the one has grown out of the other, unless it be that redemption was accomplishcd with blood, and that the frequent sprinkling of blood on an altar rendered it defiled, or unclean. In one sense, blood thus sprinkled would purify, when it took away sin; in another, it would render an object unclean or polluted. Gesenius says, that the latter signification occurs only in the later Hebrew. If the word here means to “redeem,” the sense is, that Job wished darknessto resume its dominion over the day, and rcdeem it to itself, and thus wholly to exclude the light.
If the word means to defile or pollute, the sense is, that he desired the death-shade to stain the day wholly black; to take out every ray of light, and to render it wholly obscure. Gesenius renders it in the former sense. The sense which Reiske and Dr. Good give to the word, “crush it,” is not found in the Hebrew. The word means to defile, stain, or pollute, in the following places, namely,: it is rendered “pollute” and “polluted” in Malachi 1:7, Malachi 1:12; Zephaniah 3:1; Lamentations 4:14; Ezra 2:62; Nehemiah 7:64; “defile” or “defiled” in Isaiah 59:3; Daniel 1:8; Nehemiah 13:29; and “stain” in Isaiah 63:3. It seems to me that this is the sense here, and that the meaning has been well explained by Schultens, that Job wished that his birthday should be involved in a deep “stain,” that it should be covered with clouds and storms, and made dark and dismal. This imprecation referred not only to the day on which he was born, but to each succeeding birthday. Instead of its being on its return a bright and cheerful day, he wished that it might be annually a day of tempests and of terrors; a day so marked that it wouId excite attention as especially gloomy and inauspicious. It was a day whose return conveyed no pleasure to his soul, and which he wished no one to observe with gratitude or joy.
Let a cloud dwell upon it - There is, as Dr. Good and others have remarked, much sublimity iu this expression. The Hebrew word rendered “a cloud” עננה ‛ănânâh occurs nowhere else in this form. It is the feminine form of the word ענן ‛ânân, “a cloud,” and is used “collectively” to denote “clouds;” that is, clouds piled on clouds; clouds “condensed, impacted, heaped together” (Dr. Good), and hence, the gathered tempest, the clouds assembled deep and dark, and ready to burst forth in the fury of a storm. Theodotion renders it συννεφέα sunnefea, “assembled clouds;” and hence, “darkness,” The Septuagint renders it γνόφος gnophos, “tempest,” or “thick darkness.” So Jerome, “caligo.” The word rendered “dwell upon it” שׁכן shâkan, means properly to “settle down,” and there to abide or dwell. Perhaps the original notion was that of fixing a tent, and so Schultens renders it, “tentorium figat super eo Nubes,” “Let the cloud pitch its tent over it;” rendered by Dr. Good, “The gathered tempest pavilion over it!” “This is an image,” says Schultens, “common among the Arabs.” The sense is, that Job wished clouds piled on clouds to settle down on the day permanently, to make that day their abode, and to involve it in deep and eternal night.
Let the blackness of the day terrify it - Margin, “Or, Let them terrify it as those who have a bitter day.” There has been great variety in the interpretation of this passage. Dr. Good renders it, “The blasts of noontide terrify it.” Noyes, “Let whatever darkens the day terrify it.” Herder, “The blackness of misfortune terrify it.” Jerome, Et involvatur amaritudine, “let it be involved in bitterness.” The Septuagint, καταραθείη ἡ ἡμέρα katarathein hē hēmera, “let the day be cursed.” This variety has arisen from the difficulty of determining the sense of the Hebrew word used here and rendered “blackness,” כמרירים kı̂mrı̂yrı̂ym. If it is supposed to be derived from the word כמר kâmar, to be warm, to be hot, to burn, then it would mean the deadly heats of the day, the dry and sultry blasts which prevail so much in sandy deserts. Some writers suppose that there is a reference here to the poisonous wind Samum or Samiel, which sweeps over those deserts, and which is so much dreaded in the beat of summer. “Men as well as animals are often suffocated with this wind. For during a great heat, a current of air often comes which is still hotter; and when human beings and animals are so exhausted that they almost faint away with the heat, it seems that this little addition quite deprives them of breath. When a man is suffocated with this wind, or when, as they say, his heart is burst blood is said to flow from his nose and ears two hours after his death. The body is said to remain long warm, to swell, to turn blue and green, and if the arm or leg is taken hold of to raise it up, the limb is said to come off.”
Burder’s Oriental customs, No. 176. From the testimony of recent travelers, however, it would seem that the injurious effects of this wind have been greatly exaggerated. If this interpretation be the true one, then Job wished the day of his birth to be frightful and alarming, as when such a poisonous blast should sweep along all day, and render it a day of terror and dread. But this interpretation does not well suit the parallelism. Others, therefore, understand by the word, “obscurations,” or whatever darkens the day. Such is the interpretation of Gesenius, Bochart, Noyes, and some others. According to this, the reference is to eclipses or fearful storms which cover the day in darkness. The noun here is not found elsewhere; but the “verb” כמר kâmar is used in the sense of being black and dark in Lain. v. 10: “Our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine;” or perhaps more literally, “Our skin is scorched as with a furnace, from the burning heat of famine.”
That which is burned becomes black, and hence, the word may mean that which is dark, obscure, and gloomy. This meaning suits the parallelism, and is a sense which the Hebrew will bear. Another interpretation regards the Hebrew letter כ (k) used as a prefix before the word כמרירים kı̂mrı̂yrı̂ym “bitterness,” and then the sense is, “according to the bitterness of the day;” that is, the greatest calamities which can happen to a day. This sense is found in several of the ancient versions, and is adopted by Rosenmuller. To me it seems that the second interpretation proposed best suits the connection, and that the meaning is, that Job wished that everything which could render the day gloomy and obscure might rest upon it. The Chaldee adds here,” Let it be as the bitterness of day - the grief with which Jeremiah was afflicted in being cut off from the house of the sanctuary, and Jonah in being cast into the sea of Tarshish.”
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 3:5. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it — יגאלהו yigaluhu, "pollute or avenge it," from גאל gaal, to vindicate, avenge, c. hence גאל goel, the nearest of kin, whose right it was to redeem an inheritance, and avenge the death of his relative by slaying the murderer. Let this day be pursued, overtaken, and destroyed. Let natural darkness, the total privation of the solar light, rendered still more intense by death's shadow projected over it, seize on and destroy this day, εκλαβοι αυτην, Septuagint; alluding, perhaps, says Mr. Parkhurst, to the avenger of blood seizing the offender.
Let a cloud dwell upon it — Let the dymme cloude fall upon it. - Coverdale. Let the thickest clouds have there their dwelling-place-let that be the period of time on which they shall constantly rest, and never be dispersed. This seems to be the import of the original, תשכן עליו אננה tishcan alaiv ananah. Let it be the place in which clouds shall be continually gathered together, so as to be the storehouse of the densest vapours, still in the act of being increasingly condensed.
Let the blackness of the day terrify it. — And let it be lapped in with sorrowe. - Coverdale. This is very expressive: lap signifies to fold up, or envelope any particular thing with fold upon fold, so as to cover it everywhere and secure it in all points. Leaving out the semicolon, we had better translate the whole clause thus: "Let the thickest cloud have its dwelling-place upon it, and let the bitterness of a day fill it with terror." A day similar to that, says the Targum, in which Jeremiah was distressed for the destruction of the house of the sanctuary; or like that in which Jonah was cast into the sea of Tarsis; such a day as that on which some great or national misfortune has happened: probably in allusion to that in which the darkness that might be felt enveloped the whole land of Egypt, and the night in which the destroying angel slew all the first-born in the land.
