Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 22:11
Or darkness, [that] thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.
Or darkness – Darkness and night in the Scriptures are emblems of calamity.
That thou canst not see – Deep and fearful darkness; total night, so that nothing is visible. That is, the heaviest calamities had overwhelmed him.
And abundance of waters – An emblem, also, of calamities; Job 27:20; Psa 69:1-2; Psa 73:10.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. Or darkness, that thou canst not see] The sense of this passage, in the connection that the particle or gives it with the preceding verse, is not easy to be ascertained. To me it seems very probable that a letter has been lost from the first word; and that o which we translate OR, was originally or LIGHT. The copy used by the Septuagint had certainly this reading; and therefore they translate the verse thus: ; Thy LIGHT is changed into darkness; that is, Thy prosperity is turned into adversity.
Houbigant corrects the text thus: instead of o chosech lo tireh, or darkness thou canst not see, he reads chosech lo or tireh, darkness, not light, shalt thou behold; that is, Thou shalt dwell in thick darkness. Mr. Good translates: “Or darkness which thou canst not penetrate, and a flood of waters shall cover thee.” Thou shalt either be enveloped in deep darkness, or overwhelmed with a flood.
The versions all translate differently; and neither they nor the MSS. give any light, except what is afforded by the Septuagint. Coverdale is singular: Shuldest thou then send darcknesse? Shulde not the water floude runne over the? Perhaps the meaning is: “Thou art so encompassed with darkness, that thou canst not see thy way; and therefore fallest into the snares and traps that are laid for thee.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Darkness; either,
1. A darkness and confusion of mind so great that thou canst not discern the true cause and use of all thy sufferings. Or,
2. Grievous calamities, which are oft called darkness, which are such that thou canst see no way nor possibility of escaping. Either thou art troubled with fear of further evils, as it is said, Job 21:10, or with the gross darkness of thy present state of misery.
Abundance of waters, i.e. plenty and variety of sore afflictions, which are frequently compared to waters, as Psa 18:16; 66:12; Isa 43:2.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. thatso that thou.
abundancefloods.Danger by floods is a less frequent image in this book than in therest of the Old Testament (Job 11:16;Job 27:20).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Or darkness, [that] thou canst not see,…. Or darkness is round about thee, thou art enveloped in it; meaning either judicial blindness, and darkness, and stupidity of mind, which must be his case, if he could not see the hand of God upon him, or the snares that were about him, or was not troubled with sudden fear; or else the darkness of affliction and calamity, which is often signified hereby, see Isa 8:22; afflictive dispensations of Providence are sometimes so dark, that a man cannot see the cause and reason of them, or why it is he is brought into them; which was Job’s case, and therefore desires God would show him wherefore he contended with him,
Job 10:9; nor can he see, perceive, or enjoy any light of comfort; he is in inward darkness of soul, deprived of the light of God’s countenance, as well as he is in the outward darkness of adversity, which is a most uncomfortable case, as it was this good man’s; nor can he see any end of the affliction, or any way to escape out of it, and which were the present circumstances Job was in:
and abundance of waters cover thee; afflictions, which are frequently compared to many waters, and floods of them, because of the multitude of them, their force and strength, the power and rapidity with which they come; and because overflowing, overbearing, and overwhelming, and threaten with utter ruin and destruction, unless stopped by the mighty hand of God, who only can resist and restrain them; Eliphaz represents Job like a man drowning, overflowed with a flood of water, and covered with its waves, and in the most desperate condition, see Ps 69:1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11. Darkness, etc. Dillmann and Schlottmann make this a question, but the text is better (thus Hitzig.) The darkness is moral, blurring the vision. Eliphaz represents Job’s sins as encompassing him like thick, dark clouds, and overwhelming him as a flood.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 22:11. Or darkness Thou beholdest darkness, and not light. Houbigant. Heath renders it, Or is it dark, that thou canst not see? Observing that the path of the wicked man is here represented as covered with darkness, so that he cannot see the snares which are laid for him, but falls into them: in antithesis to which, the path of the righteous man is represented in the 28th verse as all light; The light shall shine upon thy ways? Houbigant renders the last cause of the 9th verse, and thou hast broken the arms of the fatherless.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 22:11 Or darkness, [that] thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.
Ver. 11. Or darkness, that thou canst not see ] Sunt tenebrae supplicia, et damnatorum desperationes, saith Brentius here. By darkness are meant punishments, temporal and eternal. Others understand the text of blindness and confusion of mind, that can neither see the cause of trouble nor find an issue.
And abundance of waters cover thee
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
darkness: Job 18:6, Job 18:18, Job 19:8, Pro 4:19, Isa 8:22, Lam 3:2, Joe 2:2, Joe 2:3, Mat 8:12
abundance: Psa 42:7, Psa 69:1, Psa 69:2, Psa 124:4, Lam 3:54, Jon 2:3
Reciprocal: Job 23:17 – the darkness from
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
22:11 Or darkness, [that] thou canst not see; and {f} abundance of waters cover thee.
(f) That is, manifold afflictions.