Verse Lens · Context pointer

Job 10:21 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 21. Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Role in This Section

Job 10:21 advances the thought unit with the words “Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of….” Job states “Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of…” as one poetic claim in Job Sees No Safe Outcome and Pleads for Brief Relief.

Read It With

  • Job 10:14–10:22

Read Job 10:21 with 10:14–10:22. Read alone, “Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of…” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Job imagines guilt watched, innocence unable to lift his head, renewed witnesses against him, and asks why he was born before requesting a little comfort before darkness.

Why It Needs Context

Job 10:21 depends on 10:14–10:22; isolating “Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of…” would detach a poetic premise, image, response, or transition from Job and “Job Sees No Safe Outcome and Pleads for Brief Relief.”

Read Job 10:14–22 together

Why these verses belong together: Job 10:14–10:22 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained speech movement: “Job Sees No Safe Outcome and Pleads for Brief Relief.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.

Verse 14. If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.

Verse 15. If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

Verse 16. For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.

Verse 17. Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.

Verse 18. Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!

Verse 19. I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

Verse 20. Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

Verse 21. Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

Verse 22. A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read Job 10:14–10:22 — Job Sees No Safe Outcome and Pleads for Brief Relief
Sources used for this context pointer

How certain is this explanation? strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.

Exact location: Job 10:14–10:22, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 10:14–10:22

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