Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
Job speaks of his own departure to the grave, from which the dead do not return on their own to earthly life in the present life, to a place of obscurity and thickest darkness without order where every light of life is cut off. There the dead lie in darkness and silence and inactivity, knowing nothing and remembering nothing, with no thought, no praise to God, and no work, device, knowledge, or wisdom, returned to dust and become food for worms. That dark and disorderly place is not heaven or Paradise or an immediate passage to conscious joy, but Sheol, the receptacle of all the dead, righteous and wicked, the realm of the dead rather than a place of conscious reward or punishment. They remain hidden away and at rest there until the heavens are no more, when all in the graves hear Christ's voice and come forth at His coming and the first resurrection, on which all hope of life and reward rests. Death is therefore a fearful and gloomy end that all dread, yet those who trust in God while passing through this land of darkness and valley of the shadow of death are comforted by His rod and staff, because He died and lives again and they will come out of the place of the dead and live by Him.
Setting and Wording
Job 10:21 belongs to Job's answer in the colloquies and debate between Job and his three friends in chapters 3-31 of the inspired book of Job, presented as poetry and spoken by the real man Job, concerning the cause and object of human suffering, and it presents his afflictions as no proof that he has sinned. Inspiration means it is true that the words were spoken, not that every word spoken is true. Job speaks from knowledge of his own integrity, unable to understand God's dealings with him, yet not charging God foolishly, while God saw the end from the beginning and was working out what would glorify Himself forever, give comfort and hope to thousands of suffering ones, and prove a blessing to Job.
Before I go whence I shall not return means a departure to the grave from which the dead do not return on their own to earthly life in the present life. It is going to a place from which one does not return in the present life and does not resume life before the heavens are no more. All who die pass into it until they are raised.
The land of darkness and the shadow of death is the grave, described as obscurity and thickest darkness itself, without order, where light is as darkness. It is under the shadow and rule of death where every light of life is cut off, and is grouped with decay and ruin. Even though Job was righteous, this dark and disorderly place is not heaven, for to make it heaven would make heaven dark and disorderly.
Death as Unconscious Sleep
The land of darkness and the shadow of death is a land of obscurity and utter darkness where death rules and shuts out every light of life, without order, where light itself is as darkness. Those who go there at death can no longer take comfort, for the dead are unconscious, knowing nothing and remembering nothing, with no thought, no praising or thanks to God, and no work, device, knowledge, or wisdom. It is a state of darkness and silence and inactivity, where the dead rest in the dust, returned to the earth, become food for worms, and are as though they had not been. Job speaks of this as the condition he would have entered had he died in infancy, neither in heaven nor in hell nor in a conscious, comfortable state in hades.
Even though Job was righteous, the place he expected to go when he died was not heaven, Paradise, becoming an angel, or an immediate passage to praise God in conscious joy and endless life. He did not describe that destination as the dawning of an eternal day or a life of conscious joy in heaven, but as a dark condition of darkness and silence. To make this dark and disorderly place heaven would make heaven itself dark and disorderly. That gloomy condition is viewed without the light of the resurrection and life Christ brings.
The land is Sheol, the place and state of all the dead, righteous and wicked except those translated, in Hebrew corresponding to Hades in Greek and properly rendered grave or hell as the receptacle of sleepers returned to dust. It is described as a land of thickest darkness and the shadow of death, from which there is no return, where the dead have no knowledge or activity and do not receive rewards or punishments. It is the realm of the dead rather than a place where the dead are conscious. Any representation of life, knowledge, and activity among its inhabitants is only a figure of speech presenting unconscious inanimate things as living, acting, and speaking to impress future retribution vividly.
The dead lie hidden away there and rest in the grave without resuming life before the heavens are no more. They remain until the hour when all that are in the graves hear Christ's voice and come forth, raised at the first resurrection on the final day of Jesus' coming, when Job expected to see God and the living are taken to meet Christ. The whole person loses life in death, and hope of life and reward rests on Christ's coming and the resurrection rather than on death itself. Death is the enemy's land because the devil has power over death, and all who die pass into it until they are raised, which makes its picture as a hostile land fit the prophecy of people returning from an enemy's land.
Warning and Hope
Death is a fearful end and not a pleasant prospect, a departure to the grave described as a land of darkness and the shadow of death from which a person does not return. It is a gloomy condition viewed without the light of the resurrection, and death itself brings no reward, with hope of life and reward resting on Christ's coming and the resurrection and on the life Christ brings to light. All people dread that land of darkness and cling to mortal life to avoid it even though life is few days and full of trouble, for the destroyer hastens everyone there. Life is so sweet and valuable that no earthly honor or treasure equals it, yet it is short, only long enough to taste its joys, pleasures and honors and to experience its sorrows, toils and hardships before the summons to die comes to rich and poor, learned and unlearned, young and old, bond and free alike, who alike become food for worms. It is the portion of all, with one event coming to the righteous and to the wicked alike and with no discharge in that war, in the grave-state where there is no work, knowledge, device or wisdom and where the memory of the dead is forgotten, raising the question whether life is only a vapor passing away, grass springing up and withering, flowers blossoming and decaying, smoke passing away, and wind that does not return.
That same dark place where the wonders of God are not known is the land of forgetfulness, darkness itself without order where light is like darkness, where the dead know nothing, remember nothing, and do no praising. Those long dead dwell there in darkness and silence, with no remembrance or thanks to God. Even so, those who trust in God while passing through this land of darkness, this valley of the shadow of death, are comforted by His rod and staff, because He Himself died and lives again, and those whose hope is in Him will come out of the place of the dead and live by Him.
The darkness without order where light is as darkness also pictures the spiritual condition of Israel after hardening their hearts, drifting further from God, and rejecting Him to be like the nations. Sitting in that darkness, the people received a great light, even the light of God in which darkness itself is light, when Christ came. The image also supplies a measure for the day of the Lord: for the wicked and unprepared it will be a day of darkness, as dark as that land of darkness and the shadow of death.
Job speaks of his own departure to the grave, from which the dead do not return on their own to earthly life in the present life, to a place of obscurity and thickest darkness without order where every light of life is cut off. There the dead lie in darkness and silence and inactivity, knowing nothing and remembering nothing, with no thought, no praise to God, and no work, device, knowledge, or wisdom, returned to dust and become food for worms. That dark and disorderly place is not heaven or Paradise or an immediate passage to conscious joy, but Sheol, the receptacle of all the dead, righteous and wicked, the realm of the dead rather than a place of conscious reward or punishment. They remain hidden away and at rest there until the heavens are no more, when all in the graves hear Christ's voice and come forth at His coming and the first resurrection, on which all hope of life and reward rests. Death is therefore a fearful and gloomy end that all dread, yet those who trust in God while passing through this land of darkness and valley of the shadow of death are comforted by His rod and staff, because He died and lives again and they will come out of the place of the dead and live by Him.
Setting and Wording
Job 10:21 belongs to Job's answer in the colloquies and debate between Job and his three friends in chapters 3-31 of the inspired book of Job, presented as poetry and spoken by the real man Job, concerning the cause and object of human suffering, and it presents his afflictions as no proof that he has sinned. Inspiration means it is true that the words were spoken, not that every word spoken is true. Job speaks from knowledge of his own integrity, unable to understand God's dealings with him, yet not charging God foolishly, while God saw the end from the beginning and was working out what would glorify Himself forever, give comfort and hope to thousands of suffering ones, and prove a blessing to Job.
Before I go whence I shall not return means a departure to the grave from which the dead do not return on their own to earthly life in the present life. It is going to a place from which one does not return in the present life and does not resume life before the heavens are no more. All who die pass into it until they are raised.
The land of darkness and the shadow of death is the grave, described as obscurity and thickest darkness itself, without order, where light is as darkness. It is under the shadow and rule of death where every light of life is cut off, and is grouped with decay and ruin. Even though Job was righteous, this dark and disorderly place is not heaven, for to make it heaven would make heaven dark and disorderly.
Death as Unconscious Sleep
The land of darkness and the shadow of death is a land of obscurity and utter darkness where death rules and shuts out every light of life, without order, where light itself is as darkness. Those who go there at death can no longer take comfort, for the dead are unconscious, knowing nothing and remembering nothing, with no thought, no praising or thanks to God, and no work, device, knowledge, or wisdom. It is a state of darkness and silence and inactivity, where the dead rest in the dust, returned to the earth, become food for worms, and are as though they had not been. Job speaks of this as the condition he would have entered had he died in infancy, neither in heaven nor in hell nor in a conscious, comfortable state in hades.
Even though Job was righteous, the place he expected to go when he died was not heaven, Paradise, becoming an angel, or an immediate passage to praise God in conscious joy and endless life. He did not describe that destination as the dawning of an eternal day or a life of conscious joy in heaven, but as a dark condition of darkness and silence. To make this dark and disorderly place heaven would make heaven itself dark and disorderly. That gloomy condition is viewed without the light of the resurrection and life Christ brings.
The land is Sheol, the place and state of all the dead, righteous and wicked except those translated, in Hebrew corresponding to Hades in Greek and properly rendered grave or hell as the receptacle of sleepers returned to dust. It is described as a land of thickest darkness and the shadow of death, from which there is no return, where the dead have no knowledge or activity and do not receive rewards or punishments. It is the realm of the dead rather than a place where the dead are conscious. Any representation of life, knowledge, and activity among its inhabitants is only a figure of speech presenting unconscious inanimate things as living, acting, and speaking to impress future retribution vividly.
The dead lie hidden away there and rest in the grave without resuming life before the heavens are no more. They remain until the hour when all that are in the graves hear Christ's voice and come forth, raised at the first resurrection on the final day of Jesus' coming, when Job expected to see God and the living are taken to meet Christ. The whole person loses life in death, and hope of life and reward rests on Christ's coming and the resurrection rather than on death itself. Death is the enemy's land because the devil has power over death, and all who die pass into it until they are raised, which makes its picture as a hostile land fit the prophecy of people returning from an enemy's land.
Warning and Hope
Death is a fearful end and not a pleasant prospect, a departure to the grave described as a land of darkness and the shadow of death from which a person does not return. It is a gloomy condition viewed without the light of the resurrection, and death itself brings no reward, with hope of life and reward resting on Christ's coming and the resurrection and on the life Christ brings to light. All people dread that land of darkness and cling to mortal life to avoid it even though life is few days and full of trouble, for the destroyer hastens everyone there. Life is so sweet and valuable that no earthly honor or treasure equals it, yet it is short, only long enough to taste its joys, pleasures and honors and to experience its sorrows, toils and hardships before the summons to die comes to rich and poor, learned and unlearned, young and old, bond and free alike, who alike become food for worms. It is the portion of all, with one event coming to the righteous and to the wicked alike and with no discharge in that war, in the grave-state where there is no work, knowledge, device or wisdom and where the memory of the dead is forgotten, raising the question whether life is only a vapor passing away, grass springing up and withering, flowers blossoming and decaying, smoke passing away, and wind that does not return.
That same dark place where the wonders of God are not known is the land of forgetfulness, darkness itself without order where light is like darkness, where the dead know nothing, remember nothing, and do no praising. Those long dead dwell there in darkness and silence, with no remembrance or thanks to God. Even so, those who trust in God while passing through this land of darkness, this valley of the shadow of death, are comforted by His rod and staff, because He Himself died and lives again, and those whose hope is in Him will come out of the place of the dead and live by Him.
The darkness without order where light is as darkness also pictures the spiritual condition of Israel after hardening their hearts, drifting further from God, and rejecting Him to be like the nations. Sitting in that darkness, the people received a great light, even the light of God in which darkness itself is light, when Christ came. The image also supplies a measure for the day of the Lord: for the wicked and unprepared it will be a day of darkness, as dark as that land of darkness and the shadow of death.