For deep darkness is morning to all of them; for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.
Job is answering friends who insist that suffering always proves hidden guilt. He points to men whose guilt is beyond question, yet who are never touched. Verse 17 closes his picture of these night-workers. Daybreak is what every honest person welcomes. To them it is the one thing to dread.
Men Who Live by Night
The verse ends a run of pictures: the murderer, the thief, the adulterer. All of them work by darkness. One writer gathers them up, then gives a second way the verse has been read.
Samuel RidoutHere are men who hate the light, "because their works were evil." They choose the night for their "unfruitful works of darkness." The murderer lies in wait for the workman going at dawn to his labour, and turns to steal in the night... "By day they shut themselves up" (v. 16), and, how solemn, "they do not know the light" — it exposes their shame and sin... The verse has been rendered, "The depth of night is to them even as the dawn of the morning" — they are at home in the night — it is their day.
Two Kinds of Evil
The list is not random. One commentator sorts this wrongdoing under two headings, then says plainly why such men dread being seen.
William Kelly"There are those who rebel against the light; they are not acquainted with its ways, nor do they stay in its paths." Then Job describes a still worse class... a man of violence, the murderer... "The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, No eye will see me" — that is the corrupt man. Violence and corruption are the two great marks of human evil... They cannot bear to be known, what they are and what they seek.
Not Weakness — Choice
Verse 13 calls these people rebels against the light. That word matters here, because Job's friends were treating him as if he belonged with them.
Leslie M. GrantSurely Job's friends knew he could not be classed with those who "rebel against the light" (v.13). This is not only sin moved by greed, but sin moved by bold defiance of God. There was, and is, light that can be a great blessing to those who value it. But many "choose darkness rather than light." They are not merely giving in to their weaknesses; they are deliberately choosing the ways of wilful evil.
Why Daylight Terrifies
Morning does these men no physical harm. Their dread comes from inside — from conscience.
Hamilton SmithThe evil deeds that men do lead them to hate the light that exposes their deeds and disturbs their conscience. An uneasy conscience makes the light unbearable. He that puts the truth into practice will not fear the light.
This dread is not only the criminal's. It reaches anyone who would not want their inner life read out loud.
James BoydYou are glad your neighbour does not know as much about your inner life as you do yourself, and you do not wish him to know any more than he does. Why is this? Because you are conscious it would not be to your credit... But you know your life is not what it ought to be, and so you would want to hide yourself from the searching eyes of both God and man. This you will not always be able to do.
The Day That Has Not Come
Job's real complaint is timing. These men work all night, and nothing happens to them.
William KellyNow Job faces this question — how is it, if the times are so bad, that the day of retribution does not come? We do not see it. It is coming; it awaits the only One that can perfectly deal with evil.
A Morning That Is Not Feared
Older translations read this verse as "the shadow of death" where the ESV has "deep darkness". One writer takes that phrase and turns the picture around.
J. G. BellettThe resurrection of the Lord was another of these mornings. It came after the gloomiest night that ever brooded over creation. But it was light, and light indeed. It was the pledge, the forerunner of an eternal day. It was the turning of the shadow of death into the morning.
Summary
- Darkness chosen. They do not stumble into the dark. They rebel against the light and choose the ways of wilful evil.
- Darkness organised. Violence and corruption run through the whole picture. Both need the cover of night.
- Darkness dreaded. Morning feels like death to them. They cannot bear to be known, and conscience makes the light unbearable.
- Darkness unpunished — for now. Job's complaint stands. The day of reckoning has not come. It waits for the only One who can deal with evil perfectly.
- Darkness reversed. The resurrection turned the shadow of death into morning. Daybreak becomes something to hope for, not something to hide from.