I go about darkened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
Job is at the end of his long defence. He has described a body wrecked by disease and a life stripped of every comfort. Here he puts that ruin into two pictures: a man walking about blackened, and a man on his feet in public, crying out. Both raise the questions the whole book turns on: what had darkened him, and who was he crying to?
Blackened Without the Sun
One commentator's own translation of the lines around the verse sets Job's blackened walk beside the rest of his loss:
William KellyWhen I looked for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came. My insides boil and are not silent; days of affliction have overtaken me. I am going about blackened without the sun; I stand up in the assembly, I cry out. I have become a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches.
So "not by the sun" rules out the ordinary causes. Nothing outside him had done this:
William KellyWhat could go beyond what he felt inside, or beyond what it did to his body? And this came from no natural or outside cause. It came from blows never heard of before, from wasting disease, and from struggles of soul worse than all of it.
Crying in the Assembly
The second half of the verse puts Job on his feet in public. Grief borne alone and grief poured out in front of people are not the same thing:
J. N. DarbyTwo things upset Job's mind, or perhaps the two together. One was the sympathy of his friends. Alone, and from God in His presence, we can bear what we cannot bear once we have the chance to make our complaint before man. The other was pride. Pride is not stirred while we are alone, but it is wounded when others watch our misery.
So his cry was not aimed at God alone. He was calling out to the people around him, and the sound he made was no longer a human one:
William KellyHe had even cried out among men, and not to God only, and this so mournfully as to set him with the animals and birds known for their yells and screeches.
Looking for Good, Finding Darkness
Job expected his record to buy him a different outcome. One writer traces his darkness back to that expectation:
Leslie M. GrantHe looked for good as a result of his apparent goodness, but evil came to him (v.26), and darkness came rather than light. But we can never enjoy the light of God's presence when we maintain our own self-righteousness. No wonder then his heart was in turmoil, unable to rest (v.27), and he had no expectation of anything but "days of affliction."
Silence That Was Not Rejection
Job read God's silence as hostility. He had it backwards:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHe brings in God again. You do not answer me! Heaven had been silent to all his pleas. What a dreadful charge: "You have turned cruel to me; with the might of Your hand You persecute me"! He thinks himself completely forsaken, not knowing that God's thoughts toward him were thoughts of love and peace.
A Lament With No Note of Faith
Job's speech ends in sorrow with no faith in it. Another voice spoke out of a deeper darkness:
Samuel RidoutSo the wail ends in a song of sadness, without a note of faith. Let us thank our God that Another has lifted His voice out of deeper darkness than all that pressed upon Job. His words were words of sweet assurance: "Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?" "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" (John 18:11; Luke 23:46). To Him — our Saviour, our Lord, our all — we turn, and learn in our grief to say, "Your will be done."
Self, Not God
The riddle is not solved by anything Job says in this chapter, and the reason is that the chapter is still about Job:
William KellyNo solution of the riddle appears yet. On the contrary, the difficulty grows. God is hidden even more, the longer Job dwells on the circumstances of the past and the present, with a conscience on which no evil lay. For all this is but self, not God; and we must humble ourselves under His mighty hand if we want to be lifted up at the right time. Self-defence does not win the blessing, however true it is. Neither does complaining or wounded feeling. The blessing comes by justifying God and learning one's own vileness in His presence.
Summary
- Blackened — his darkness came from no sun. It came from crushing blows, wasting disease, and inward pain worse than both.
- Self — he looked for good because he had done good. No one enjoys the light of God's presence while holding on to self-righteousness.
- Audience — he stood up and cried out in public. What we can bear alone with God we often cannot bear once people are watching.
- Silence — he called God's silence cruelty. God's thoughts toward him were thoughts of love and peace.
- Contrast — Job's lament ends with no note of faith. So we listen to the One who, in deeper darkness, said, "Your will be done."