Bible Strands
Job 12:25
They grope in the darkness without light; He makes them stagger like drunkards.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job speaks these words to his three friends, continuing his declaration that God strips earth’s leaders of reason and leaves them wandering (Job 12:24). The verse extends that description to the broader collapse of human guidance under divine judgment.
The words — The Hebrew verb יְמַשְּׁשׁוּ (ye.mash.shu) literally means "they grope," paired with חֹשֶׁךְ (cho.shesh) for "darkness" and אֹר (or) for "light." The phrase וַיּתעם (va.yit'am) translates to "He made them wander," directly compared to כַּשִּׁכּוֹר (ka.shikhor), "like a drunkard."
The thread — The text describes those who grope in darkness without light and stagger like drunkards, a pattern repeated in Job 5:14 and Psalm 107:27. Isaiah 24:20 applies the identical staggering imagery to the earth itself, which sways under the weight of rebellion.
Why it lands — The passage demands acknowledgment that human reason and leadership collapse without divine direction. It confronts the reader with the reality that God actively determines the stability or ruin of those in authority.
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
They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
Cross-references
- Job 5:14 They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night.
- Psalms 107:27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their skill was useless.
- Isaiah 24:20 The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again.
- Isaiah 19:14 The LORD has poured into her a spirit of confusion. Egypt has been led astray in all she does, as a drunkard staggers through his own vomit.
- Genesis 19:11 And they struck the men at the entrance, young and old, with blindness, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door.
- Deuteronomy 28:29 and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.
- Isaiah 59:10 Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.
- 1 John 2:11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
- Acts 13:11 Now look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and for a time you will be blind and unable to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.