Bible Strands
Job 19:8
He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses his three friends and God during a moment of acute distress following the loss of his possessions, children, and physical health. He speaks immediately after recording that his cries for justice receive no answer.
The words — The Hebrew verb גָּדַר (Ga.dar) literally means "he has walled up," and חֹשֶׁךְ (Cho.shekh) means "darkness." Together they describe an active obstruction of movement and vision.
The thread — This motif of divine confinement appears in Job 3:23, where God has hedged in a man whose way is hidden, and in Lamentations 3:7, where God has walled someone in so they cannot escape. Psalms 88:8 similarly records a state of confinement from which the speaker cannot break free.
Why it lands — The verse first establishes that suffering can manifest as an inescapable, divinely imposed isolation. It requires the reader to acknowledge that divine action may sometimes present as total obstruction rather than immediate rescue.
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
He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
Cross-references
- Job 3:23 Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
- Lamentations 3:7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
- Psalms 88:8 You have removed my friends from me; You have made me repulsive to them; I am confined and cannot escape.
- Proverbs 4:19 But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble.
- Lamentations 3:9 He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
- Hosea 2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way.
- Joshua 24:7 So your fathers cried out to the LORD, and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, over whom He brought the sea and engulfed them. Your very eyes saw what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.
- Job 30:26 But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
- Isaiah 50:10 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of His Servant? Who among you walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD; let him lean on his God.
- 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.