Albert Barnes Commentary Job 10:21

"Before I go whence I shall not return, [Even] to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;" — Job 10:21 (ASV)

Before I go - from where “I shall not return.” To the grave, to the land of shades, to

“That undiscovered country, from whose boundary
No traveler returns.”

To the land of darkness - This passage is important as providing an illustration of what was understood early on about the regions of the dead. The essential idea here is that it was a land of darkness, of total and absolute night. This idea Job presents in a great variety of forms and phrases.

He amplifies it and apparently uses all the epithets he can command to represent the utter and entire darkness of the place. The place referred to is not the grave, but the region beyond, the abode of departed spirits, the Hades of the ancients. The idea here is that it is a place where not a clear ray of light ever shines.

That this was a common opinion of the ancients regarding the world of departed spirits is well known. Virgil, for instance, speaks of those gloomy regions:

Dii, quibus imperium est animarum, umbraeque silentes,
Et Chaos, et Phlegethon, loca nocte tacentia late,
Sit mihi fas audita loqui; sit numine vestro
Pandere res alta terra et caligine mersas.
Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram,
Perque domos Ditis vacuas, et inania regna:
Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna
Est iter in silvis: ubi caelum condidit umbra
Jupiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem.

Aeneid vi. 259 and following

A similar view of Hades was held by the Greeks. Thus, Theognis, 1007:

Ὠς μάκαρ εὐδυίμων τε και ὄλβιος, ὅστις ἄπειρος
Ἄθλων, εἰς ἥ δου δῶμα μέλαν κατέβη.

Hōs makar eudaimōn te kai olbios, hostis apeiros
Athlōn eis hē dou dōma melan katebē.

However, nowhere is a description to be found that, for intensity and emphasis of expression, surpasses this one by Job.

Shadow of death - See this phrase explained in the note at Job 3:5.