Bible Strands
Job 30:26
But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks in the midst of his prolonged affliction, immediately after noting his compassion for the needy and before describing his internal turmoil and unrelenting days of trouble.
The words — קִוִּיתִי (ki.vi.ti) = "I waited for" and אֲיַחֲלָה ('a.ya.cha.Lah) = "I waited".
The thread — The same pattern of anticipated relief yielding to terror or darkness appears in Jer 8:15, Job 3:25, and Jer 14:19.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to accept that moral vigilance and patient expectation do not automatically produce deliverance, and that suffering continues regardless of human hope.
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
When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 8:15 We hoped for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing, but there was only terror.
- Job 3:25 For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me.
- Jeremiah 14:19 Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of healing, but there was only terror.
- Job 18:6 The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him goes out.
- Job 19:8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
- Job 23:17 Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.
- Psalms 97:11 Light shines on the righteous, gladness on the upright in heart.
- 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.
- Micah 1:12 For the dwellers of Maroth pined for good, but calamity came down from the LORD, even to the gate of Jerusalem.
- Job 18:18 He is driven from light into darkness and is chased from the inhabited world.