Bible Strands
Job 10:21
before I go—never to return—to a land of darkness and gloom,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses God directly, pleading for a brief respite before his impending death. He speaks this during a moment of acute distress, asking God to withdraw so he may have a short period of comfort.
The words — The verbs אֵ֭לֵךְ ('E.lekh) "I will go" and אָשׁ֑וּב ('a.Shuv) "I will return" establish the verse's structural boundary. The text states Job will depart to a land of darkness without ever returning, rather than inferring a metaphorical journey.
The thread — This motif of irreversible departure runs through Job 16:22, which echoes the "way of no return," and contrasts with David’s stated hope in 2 Samuel 12:23 to go to his deceased child. The darkness imagery aligns with Job 3:5, which calls for gloom and shadow to reclaim a place.
Why it lands — The verse demands acknowledgment of mortality as a fixed limit that halts all movement. It asks the reader to face the finality of death without assuming immediate restoration beyond it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 12:23 But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
- Job 3:5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
- Job 16:22 For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.
- Job 7:8 The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.
- 2 Samuel 14:14 For we will surely die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life, but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.
- Job 14:10 But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
- Psalms 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
- Job 3:13 For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest
- Psalms 88:11 Can Your loving devotion be proclaimed in the grave, Your faithfulness in Abaddon?
- Psalms 88:6 You have laid me in the lowest Pit, in the darkest of the depths.