Job 3:5

Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it,.... Let there be such darkness on it as on persons when dying, or in the state of the dead; hence the sorest afflictions, and the state of man in

Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. Let ... the shadow of death (deepest darkness, Isaiah 9:2) Stain it.

Darkness and the shadow of death, i.e. a black and dark shadow, like that of the place of the dead, which is a land of darkness, and where the light is darkness, as Job explains this very phrase, ,22; or so gross and palpable darkness, that by its horrors and damps may take away men’ s spirits and lives. Stain it, i.e. take away its beauty and glory, and make it abominable, as a filthy thing. Or, challenge it, i.e. take and keep the entire possession of it, so as the light may not have the least share in it. Terrify it, to wit, the day, i.e. men in it. Let it be always observed as a frightful and dismal day.

Job 3:5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.Ver. 5. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it] Let it be dies luctuosus et lethalis, such a deadly dark day, that each man may think it his last day, fatal and feral. Let there not be dimness only (such as appeareth through a painted glass, dyed with some obscure colour), but horrid and hideous darkness, such as was that at our Saviour’ s passion, when the sun was totally eclipsed, and a great philosopher thereupon cried out, Either the God of Nature suffers, or the world is at an end. To darkness Job here emphatically addeth the shadow of death. The shadow is the dark part of the thing, so that the shadow of death is the darkest side of death, death in its blackest representation. Now let these stain it, saith he, or challenge it, or espouse it. In nocte funestatur mundi honor - Sordent, silent, stupent cuncta, saith Tertullian, elegantly. Let a cloud dwell upon it] Crescit etiamnum per Auxesin oratio. Job heaps up words, like in sound, and not unlike in sense. Grief had made him eloquent; as hoping thereby to ease himself. "Let a cloud dwell upon it," a fixed cloud, not such a one as continually hangeth over the island of St Thomas, on the back side of Africa, wherewith the whole island is watered; nor such a cloud of grace as God promiseth to create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, that upon all his glory may be a defence, Isaiah 4:5. But such as St Paul and his company were under before the shipwreck, Acts 27:20, when neither sun nor star appeared for many days together, the heavens being wholly muffled, &c. Let the blackness of the day terrify it] Or, Let the heat of the day terrify it; as it befalleth those that live under the torrid zone, where nothing prospereth. The Atlantes (a certain people) are said to curse the rising sun, it doth so torture them with extreme heat. When the dog star ariseth, those are in ill case who dwell in hot countries towards the east, they are troubled and terrified. Some take the word Chimrine, here rendered blackness, for those Chemarims mentioned by the prophets, those chimney chaplains of the heathen idols, and so render it thus, Let the priests of the day terrify it, Hinc forsan tenebrae Cimmeriae; that is, Let those who used to observe and distinguish days note it for a terrible day. Others understand it of the noon day devils, that should vex people on that day with hellish heats and fires: the Vulgate Latin hath it thus, Let, as it were, the bitternesses of the day terrify it: and to the same sense the Chaldee Paraphrast. Job still riseth in his discourse, making use of many poetical figures, and tragic phrases, picked out for the purpose.

(5) Stain.—Literally, redeem—i.e., claim as their rightful inheritance. The other meaning enters into this word, as in Isaiah 63:3; Malachi 1:7. Blackness of the day—i.e., preternatural darkness, inopportune and unexpected darkness, like that of eclipses, &c.

Verse 5. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it] יגאלהו yigaluhu, "pollute or avenge it," from גאל gaal, to vindicate, avenge, c. hence גאל goel, the nearest of kin, whose right it was to redeem an inheritance, and avenge the death of his relative by slaying the murderer. Let this day be pursued, overtaken, and destroyed. Let natural darkness, the total privation of the solar light, rendered still more intense by death's shadow projected over it, seize on and destroy this day, εκλαβοιαυτην, Septuagint; alluding, perhaps, says Mr. Parkhurst, to the avenger of blood seizing the offender. Let a cloud dwell upon it] Let the dymme cloude fall upon it. - Coverdale. Let the thickest clouds have there their dwelling-place-let that be the period of time on which they shall constantly rest, and never be dispersed. This seems to be the import of the original, תשכן עליו אננה tishcan alaiv ananah. Let it be the place in which clouds shall be continually gathered together, so as to be the storehouse of the densest vapours, still in the act of being increasingly condensed. Let the blackness of the day terrify it.] And let it be lapped in with sorrowe. - Coverdale. This is very expressive: lap signifies to fold up, or envelope any particular thing with fold upon fold, so as to cover it everywhere and secure it in all points. Leaving out the semicolon, we had better translate the whole clause thus: "Let the thickest cloud have its dwelling-place upon it, and let the bitterness of a day fill it with terror." A day similar to that, says the Targum, in which Jeremiah was distressed for the destruction of the house of the sanctuary; or like that in which Jonah was cast into the sea of Tarsis; such a day as that on which some great or national misfortune has happened: probably in allusion to that in which the darkness that might be felt enveloped the whole land of Egypt, and the night in which the destroying angel slew all the first-born in the land.

5. shadow of death stain it] Rather, claim it, lit. redeem it. Let it become part of the possession of darkness. The word, however, does not mean reclaim, as if the idea were that the day had been won from darkness by light and was to be reconquered. The translation “shadow of death” possibly rests on a false etymology; at the same time it is perhaps the best that can be given, and Hitzig’s conjecture that the Hebrews themselves came to see the word “death” in the termination of the form may not be far astray, comp. Job 38:17. The word originally means “deepest darkness.” the blackness of the day] lit. blacknesses. The word probably means “all that makes black the day,” eclipses, supernatural obscurations and the like—all ominous darknesses that terrify a day.

Let darkness and the shadow of death - The Hebrew word צלמות tsalmâveth is exceedingly musical and poetical.

5. The shadow of death — φμξεϊ tsal-maweth, was regarded by the ancients as one of the very few Hebrew compound words; but now, by De Dieu and many moderns, it is taken to be a derivative from φμν, to be dark.