Bible Strands
Job 3:5
May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job speaks his curse against the day of his birth, addressing no human audience but voicing a lament before God after his total ruin.
The words — חֹשֶׁךְ (Choshekh) means darkness, and תִּשְׁכַּן (tishkon) commands it to settle down or take up residence.
The thread — The verse's imagery of oppressive darkness recurs in Job 10:21, Job 28:3, and Psalms 23:4.
Why it lands — The text demands the reader acknowledge that the speaker views his own origin as a place where light should be permanently extinguished. It asks the reader to observe a curse that treats darkness not as a natural cycle but as a reclaimed territory.
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
Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Cross-references
- Job 10:21 before I go—never to return—to a land of darkness and gloom,
- Job 28:3 Man puts an end to the darkness; he probes the farthest recesses for ore in deepest darkness.
- 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.
- 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?’
- Deuteronomy 4:11 You came near and stood at the base of the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire to the heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.
- Psalms 107:10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains,
- Psalms 107:14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke away their chains.
- Isaiah 9:2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
- Jeremiah 4:28 Therefore the earth will mourn and the heavens above will grow dark. I have spoken, I have planned, and I will not relent or turn back.”
- 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.