Job 3:5

5. The shadow of death צלמות 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 צלם , to be dark. Compare Arabic, Zalima, of the same meaning. Ewald and Dillmann point differently, and read tsalmouth, “ black darkness;” the latter of whom looks upon the idea of shadow in connexion with sheol as a feeble word to express the extreme darkness of Orcus, (Sheol.) Its gradational use here in connexion with darkness, as well as elsewhere in Scripture, (chapters Job 10:21; Job 28:3; Job 34:22; Psalms 107:14,) points to its true meaning of deep and terrible darkness, such as the popular imagination in that day associated with the regions of the dead. It also appears in contradistinction to light, (Job 12:22;) as an attributive of sheol, (Job 10:21;) and in connexion with the gates of the world of the dead, (Job 38:17.). It is also used metaphorically for affliction, Job 16:16; and for evil and calamity, Psalms 44:19; Isaiah 9:2. On the supposition that it is a compound word, the idea of “shadow of death” may have sprung from the darkness so frequently noticed to creep over the sight of the dying, which even now strikes terror, if so be at evening time it be not light. Zechariah 14:7. (See note on Matthew 4:16.)

Stain it גאל , claim or redeem it, the common and accepted meaning of the word. Our translators, following the Targum, probably took their rendering from געל , a kindred form of the word. The day of Job’s birth was once their possession, (Genesis 1:2,) and as kinsmen the primeval darkness and chaos have a right to redeem and bring it back, as belonging to them, and not to the light. (Leviticus 25:25.)

Cloud dwell upon it “Let the cloud pitch its tent over it.” Schultens. This is an image common among the Arabs, and is thus illustrated by Schultens from the Arabic history of Tamerlane: “And when the darkness of the night shall dissolve its tents, and the dawn, as if marching forth to banquet, shall unfold her banners.”

The blackness כמרירי , (from כמר , “to be burnt,” “to be black,”) the darkenings or obscurations. The marginal rendering is that of Schultens, Mercer, etc. This is now of as little consideration as will be the proposed emendation of Hitzig, who changes the second ר into ד , thus making the expression similar to that of Job 24:13, (which see,) “like apostates from the light.” This view, which is not original, Furst had already condemned. The reading as above, “darkenings of the day,” is now generally accepted. Reference is supposed to be made to the darkness caused by an eclipse, which was thought by most ancient nations to forebode disaster. Thus Renan “Let an eclipse, fill it with terror.”