Job 34:22
in Job 34There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity can hide.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
There is no darkness, nor thick gloom, Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
KJV
There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
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This verse in Job 34
Commentary
8 notes on this verseThere is no darkness, and there is no shadow of death, where they who work iniquity may be hid. What did he intend to designate by darkness but ignorance, and what by the shadow of death, except oblivion?
This site's exposition
His eyes are on the ways of a man
on Job 34:21-25
“For His eyes are on the ways of a man” answers Job's complaint of a hidden God. Elihu shows justice in history, where “He shatters the mighty without inquiry and sets up others in their place”. “He recognizes their deeds”, and so “He overthrows them in the night”.
This site's exposition
no darkness or deep shadow
Deep shadow renders the Hebrew for the shadow of death, which Albert Barnes explains at Job 3:5 as the deepest darkness. Gregory the Dialogist reads darkness as ignorance and the shadow as forgetting. God sees the wicked through both.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Someone could believe that since God is light and the wicked are in darkness that they are hidden from God, but he excludes this saying, "There is no darkness," of ignorance, "nor shadow of death," which refers to the obscurity of fault leading to death, …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
The day is coming when mighty men, and chief captains, will call to the rocks and mountains to hide them. [2.] They would gladly be hid even by the shadow of death, be hid in the grave, and lie for ever there, rather than appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. (3.) It is in vain to think of flying from God's justice, or absconding when his wrath is in pursuit of us.
There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
There is no darkness - In this life; and no shadow of death in the other world - no annihilation in which the workers of iniquity may hide themselves, or take refuge.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
There is no darkness - No dark cavern which can furnish a place of concealment. The guilty usually take refuge in some obscure place where people cannot detect them. But Elihu says that man has no power of concealing himself thus from God. Nor shadow of death - A phrase here signifying deep darkness; see it explained in the notes at Job 3:5. Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves - That is, where they may conceal themselves so as not to be detected by God. They may conceal themselves from the notice of man; they may escape the most vigilant police; they may elude all the officers of justice on earth. But they cannot be hid from God. There is an eye that sees their lurking places, and there is a hand that will drag them forth to justice.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֵֽין־ | ʾein- | there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| חֹ֭שֶׁךְ | choshekh | [is] darkness | H2822 → | 80 times |
| וְאֵ֣ין | veein | and there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| צַלְמָ֑וֶת | tzalmavet | [is] deep darkness | H6757 → | 18 times |
| לְהִסָּ֥תֶר | lehisater | to hide themselves | H5641 → | 80 times |
| שָׁ֝֗ם | sam | there | H8033 → | 834 times |
| פֹּ֣עֲלֵי | poalei | [those who] do | H6466 → | 57 times |
| אָֽוֶן׃ | ʾaven | <of> wickedness | H205 → | 77 times |
אֵֽין־there not
ʾein-H369 →789 times
חֹ֭שֶׁךְ[is] darkness
choshekhH2822 →80 times
וְאֵ֣יןand there not
veeinH369 →789 times
צַלְמָ֑וֶת[is] deep darkness
tzalmavetH6757 →18 times
לְהִסָּ֥תֶרto hide themselves
lehisaterH5641 →80 times
שָׁ֝֗םthere
samH8033 →834 times
פֹּ֣עֲלֵי[those who] do
poaleiH6466 →57 times
אָֽוֶן׃<of> wickedness
ʾavenH205 →77 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Hebrews 4:13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
it leads to
- Proverbs 15:3
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, observing the evil and the good.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 1 Corinthians 4:5
Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each…
- Psalms 33:13–15
The LORD looks down from heaven; He sees all the sons of men.
- Ecclesiastes 12:14
For God will bring every deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.
- 1 Samuel 16:7
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the LORD does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the…
- Proverbs 15:3
Through
Jeremiah 23:24“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.
it leads to
- Psalms 139:7
Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?
- Psalms 90:8
You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
- Isaiah 29:15
Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”
- Psalms 139:7
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXV; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.