with the English words “in vain,” is ironic, for non-being is exactly what Job wants. Job takes advantage of a rich vocabulary to indicate darkness. The words practically leap off his tongue, in English: “night,” “darkness,” “deep darkness,” “cloudy pall,” “blacken”(?), “gloom,” possibly “hidden” and “grave,” at least by inference. Neither the “twilight stars” nor “dawn’s glimmering” of v. 9 offset the overwhelming sensation resulting from the verbal barrage of vocabulary for darkness.