Job 23:17
Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.
BSB
ASV
Because I was not cut off before the darkness, Neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.
KJV
Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.
Because I have not perished on account of the overhanging darkness; neither hath the darkness covered my face. For he, being set under the scourge, dies off from the health of the body 'on account of the overhanging darkness,' who is for this reason smitten for the past that he may be shielded from future punishments. For scourges inflicted on the good either wipe out evil things done, or parry off future ones which might have been done.
Because I was not cut off before the darkness - Before these calamities came upon me. Because I was not taken away in the midst of prosperity, and while I was enjoying his smiles and the proofs of his love. His trouble is, that he was spared to pass through these trials, and to be treated as if he were one of the worst of men. This is what now perplexes him, and what he cannot understand. He does not know why God had reserved him to treat him as if he were the chief of sinners.
Because I was not taken away by death from the evil to come (literally, "from before the face of the darkness," Isa 57:1). Alluding to the words of Eliphaz (Job 22:11), "darkness," that is, calamity. cut off--rather, in the Arabic sense, brought to the land of silence; my sad complaint hushed in death [UMBREIT].
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Isaiah 57:1The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; devout men are swept away, while no one considers that the righteous are guided from the presence of evil.
leads to
‘Therefore I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place.’”…
‘Now I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place…
Help, O LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.
The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.
So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to…
Through
2 Kings 22:20‘Therefore I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place.’”…
leads to
Consider the blameless and observe the upright, for posterity awaits the man of peace.
Through
Job 19:8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
leads to
He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
