Bible Strands
Job 10:22
to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses God directly as he prepares to die, framing his departure as a one-way journey to the grave. He marks this moment as the final exit from life with no possibility of return.
The words — The Hebrew עֵיפָתָה ('ei.Fa.tah) means darkness, and וְ/לֹ֥א סְדָרִ֗ים (ve./Lo' se.da.Rim) literally renders "and no orders" or absence of structure. These terms explicitly define the destination as a place stripped of any arrangement or pattern.
The thread — This description of inescapable obscurity parallels Job 3:5, where darkness and gloom reclaim a place, and stands in direct contrast to Job 34:22, which denies any such shadow where God observes. The psalmist similarly invokes this realm in Psalms 88:12 to question whether divine acts are recognized in oblivion.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge death as a descent into a state of absolute obscurity and structural collapse. It demands a clear-eyed confrontation with human finitude before any theological resolution is applied.
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
A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.
Cross-references
- Psalms 88:12 Will Your wonders be known in the darkness, or Your righteousness in the land of oblivion?
- Job 3:5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
- Job 34:22 There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity can hide.
- Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
- 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.
- Psalms 44:19 But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals; You have covered us with deepest darkness.
- Jeremiah 2:6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
- Jeremiah 13:16 Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.
- Luke 16:26 And besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that even those who wish cannot cross from here to you, nor can anyone cross from there to us.’