Mazmur 143:3

143:3 Certainly ¹  my enemies ²  chase me.

They smash me into the ground. ³ 

They force me to live ⁴  in dark regions, ⁵ 

like those who have been dead for ages.

Ayub 10:21-22

10:21 before I depart, never to return, ⁶ 

to the land of darkness

and the deepest shadow, ⁷ 

10:22 to the land of utter darkness,

like the deepest darkness,

and the deepest shadow and disorder, ⁸ 

where even the light ⁹  is like darkness.” ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 8:22

8:22 When one looks out over the land, he sees ¹¹  distress and darkness, gloom ¹²  and anxiety, darkness and people forced from the land. ¹³ 

Matius 8:12

8:12 but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹⁴ 

Yudas 1:13

1:13 wild sea waves, ¹⁵  spewing out the foam of ¹⁶  their shame; ¹⁷  wayward stars ¹⁸  for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness ¹⁹  have been reserved.

[143:3]  ¹ tn Or “for.”

[143:3]  ² tn Heb “an enemy.” The singular is used in a representative sense to describe a typical member of the larger group of enemies (note the plural “enemies” in vv. 9, 12).

[143:3]  ³ tn Heb “he crushes on the ground my life.”

[143:3]  ⁴ tn Or “sit.”

[143:3]  ⁵ sn Dark regions refers to Sheol, which the psalmist views as a dark place located deep in the ground (see Ps 88:6).

[10:21]  ⁶ sn The verbs are simple, “I go” and “I return”; but Job clearly means before he dies. A translation of “depart” comes closer to communicating this. The second verb may be given a potential imperfect translation to capture the point. The NIV offered more of an interpretive paraphrase: “before I go to the place of no return.”

[10:21]  ⁷ tn See Job 3:5.

[10:22]  ⁸ tn The word סֵדֶר (seder, “order”) occurs only here in the Bible. G. R. Driver found a new meaning in Arabic sadira, “dazzled by the glare” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 76-77); this would mean “without a ray of light.” This is accepted by those who see chaos out of place in this line. But the word “order” is well-attested in later Hebrew (see J. Carmignac, “Précisions aportées au vocabulaire d’hébreu biblique par La guerre des fils de lumière contre les fils de ténèbres,” VT 5 [1955]: 345-65).

[10:22]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew word literally means “it shines”; the feminine verb implies a subject like “the light” (but see GKC 459 §144.c).

[10:22]  ¹⁰ tn The verse multiplies images for the darkness in death. Several commentators omit “as darkness, deep darkness” (כְּמוֹ אֹפֶל צַלְמָוֶת, kÿmo ’ofel tsalmavet) as glosses on the rare word עֵיפָתָה (’efatah, “darkness”) drawn from v. 21 (see also RSV). The verse literally reads: “[to the] land of darkness, like the deep darkness of the shadow of death, without any order, and the light is like the darkness.”

[8:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

[8:22]  ¹² tn The precise meaning of מְעוּף (mÿ’uf) is uncertain; the word occurs only here. See BDB 734 s.v. מָעוּף.

[8:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “ and darkness, pushed.” The word מְנֻדָּח (mÿnudakh) appears to be a Pual participle from נדח (“push”), but the Piel is unattested for this verb and the Pual occurs only here.

[8:12]  ¹⁴ sn Weeping and gnashing of teeth is a figure for remorse and trauma, which occurs here because of exclusion from God’s promise.

[1:13]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “wild waves of the sea.”

[1:13]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “foaming, causing to foam.” The verb form is intensive and causative. BDAG 360 s.v. ἐπαφρίζω suggests the meaning “to cause to splash up like froth, cause to foam,” or, in this context, “waves casting up their own shameless deeds like (dirty) foam.”

[1:13]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “shames, shameful things.” It is uncertain whether shameful deeds or shameful words are in view. Either way, the picture has taken a decided turn: Though waterless clouds and fruitless trees may promise good things, but deliver nothing, wild sea-waves are portents of filth spewed forth from the belly of the sea.

[1:13]  ¹⁸ sn The imagery of a star seems to fit the nautical theme that Jude is developing. Stars were of course the guides to sailors at night, just as teachers are responsible to lead the flock through a benighted world. But false teachers, as wayward stars, are not fixed and hence offer unreliable, even disastrous guidance. They are thus both the dangerous reefs on which the ships could be destroyed and the false guides, leading them into these rocks. There is a special irony that these lights will be snuffed out, reserved for the darkest depths of eternal darkness.

[1:13]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “utter darkness of darkness for eternity.” See note on the word “utter” in v. 6.