Job 36:20
in Job 36Do not long for the night, when people vanish from their homes.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Desire not the night, When peoples are cut off in their place.
KJV
Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.
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This verse in Job 36
Commentary
11 notes on this verseDesire not the night,.... Either in a literal sense, which Job might do; not for secrecy to commit sin, as the thief, murderer, and adulterer do; Elihu had no such suspicion of Job; nor for ease and rest, which he expected not; nor would his sores admit thereof; his nights were wearisome, and when come he wished they were gone, Job 7:2; but either for retirement, that he might muse and consider, and endeavour to search and find out the reason of God's dealing with men, in cutting off sometimes such great numbers together.
This site's exposition
The godless in heart harbor resentment
on Job 36:13-21
Elihu warns Job directly that he is “laden with the judgment due the wicked”, and that “judgment and justice have seized you”. Wesley takes “Do not long for the night” in verse 20 as a warning against wishing for death, the wish Job voiced in chapter 3.
This site's exposition
Do not long for the night
Adam Clarke takes the night as the death Job wished for. Matthew Henry reads it as the night that covers a beaten army's retreat, and Job cannot escape God's judgment that way. Umbreit, cited by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, finds a descent to the people below.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church3 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXVI · Written before 604.
proposed
Prolong not the night, that people may go up for them. As if the arrogant openly said; Act not so in the darkness of thy ignorance, as to substitute a host of infirm persons in the place of the strong. For by the name 'people' are designated those, who, given up to the common practice, live without restraint in all that they desire. But to 'prolong the night, that people should go up in the place of the strong,' is, if it is caused by negligence, that the unlearned and weak occupy the place of the learned and strong. People go up in the place of the strong, when they who have learned to live wickedly, obtain the place of pastors. And this would be rightly said, if it were spoken humbly. For haughty men, even when they give good advice, exercise their wicked over-bearingness. For, as was before stated, they more desire to smite with reproof, than to cherish with consolation.
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXVI · Written before 604.
proposed
Prolong not the night, that people should go up for them. For the night is indeed prolonged, when the sorrow, that springs from temptation, is not ended by the rising up of consolation. The night is protracted, because the sorrow of the mind is prolonged by confused thoughts. For whilst the mind, placed in temptation, considers that it is driven away from the former solidity of its virtue, it is blinded by superinduced sorrows, as by a kind of gloom.
Sometimes, judges lack justice for the sake of their own comfort and so he says, "Do not lengthen the night," that is, do not permit the justice of a cause to be hidden for a long time but immediately bring the truth to light, and …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
): " Desire not the night, which often favours the retreat of a conquered army and covers it; think not that thou canst so escape the righteous judgment of God, for the darkness hideth not from him, " Ps. cxxxix.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
His demonstration of God's sovereignty and omnipotence, which he gives instances of in the operations of common providence, and which is a reason why we should all submit to him in his dealings with us,
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
Desire not the night - Thou hast wished for death; (here called night); desire it not; leave that with God. If he hear thee, and send death, thou mayest be cut off in a way at which thy soul would shudder.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
UMBREIT'S translation: "To ascend (which is really, as thou wilt find to thy cost, to descend) to the people below" (literally, "under themselves"), answers better to the parallelism and the Hebrew.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Desire not the night - That is, evidently, “the night of death.” The darkness of the night is an emblem of death, and it is not uncommon to speak of death in this manner; see Joh 9:4, “The night cometh, when no man can work.” Elihu seems to have supposed that Job might have looked forward to death as to a time of release; that so far from “dreading” what he had said would come, that God would cut him off at a stroke, it might be the very thing which he desired, and which he anticipated would be an end of his sufferings. Indeed Job had more than once expressed some such sentiment, and Elihu designs to meet that state of mind, and to charge him not to look forward to death as relief. If his present state of mind continued, he says, he would perish under the “wrath” of God; and death in such a manner, great as might be his sufferings here, could not be desirable. When people are cut off in their place - On this passage, Schultens enumerates no less than “fifteen” different interpretations which have been given, and at the end of this enumeration remarks that he “waits for clearer light to overcome the shades of this night.” Rosenmullcr supposes it means,” Long not for the night, in which nations go under themselves;” that is, in which they go down to the inferior regions, or in which they perish. Noyes renders it, “To which nations are taken away to their place.” Urnbroil renders it, “Pant not for the night, to go down to the people who dwell under thee;” that is, to the Shades, or to those that dwell in Sheol. Prof. Lee translates it, “Pant not for the night, for the rising of the populace from their places.” Coverdale, “Prolong not thou the time, until there come a night for thee to set other people in thy stead.” The Septuagint, “Do not draw out the night, that the people may come instead of them;” that is, to their assistance. Dr. […]
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַל־ | ʾal- | may not | H408 → | 724 times |
| תִּשְׁאַ֥ף | tishaf | you long for | H7602 → | 14 times |
| הַלָּ֑יְלָה | halayelah | the night | H3915 → | 233 times |
| לַעֲל֖וֹת | laalot | to go up | H5927 → | 890 times |
| עַמִּ֣ים | ʾamim | peoples | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| תַּחְתָּֽם׃ | tachtam | in place their | H8478 → | 505 times |
אַל־may not
ʾal-H408 →724 times
תִּשְׁאַ֥ףyou long for
tishafH7602 →14 times
הַלָּ֑יְלָהthe night
halayelahH3915 →233 times
לַעֲל֖וֹתto go up
laalotH5927 →890 times
עַמִּ֣יםpeoples
ʾamimH5971 →1873 times
תַּחְתָּֽם׃in place their
tachtamH8478 →505 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
2 Kings 19:35And that very night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the…
it leads to
- 2 Chronicles 32:21–22
and the LORD sent an angel who annihilated every mighty man of valor and every leader and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he withdrew to his own land in…
- 2 Samuel 24:16
But when the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now!” At that…
- Exodus 12:29–30
Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon,…
- 2 Chronicles 32:21–22
Through
Exodus 12:29Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon,…
it leads to
- Psalms 78:51
He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the virility in the tents of Ham.
- Exodus 4:23
and I told you to let My son go so that he may worship Me. But since you have refused to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son!’”
- Psalms 105:36
Then He struck all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their vigor.
- Psalms 135:8
He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, of both man and beast.
- Psalms 136:10
He struck down the firstborn of Egypt His loving devotion endures forever.
- Psalms 78:51
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVI; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.