Job 34:22

β The unerring righteouness of the divine government is made both possible and necessary by the OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. All men, with all their deeds, are naked and open before him, and he needs no inquisition in order to form and pronounce a righteous judgment, (Job 34:21-24.) “He cannot, therefore, through ignorance, punish the innocent nor the guilty beyond their true demerit.” Scott.

22. Shadow of death Used here, as elsewhere, in the same association with darkness, (Job 3:5; Job 10:21; Job 28:3,) for the darkness of sheol. In all God’s creation even in sheol there is no veil of darkness that can hide the sinner. Deeds of darkness, like the seed of certain plants, are by nature’s ordinance winged against concealment or final destruction. The wish on the part of the evil doer to hide sin involves an acknowledgment that there is justice over the creation, and points to an everlasting contest between the Supreme will to detect and the human interest to conceal, as John Foster shows in a thoughtful discourse on this text. ( Broadmead Lec. 1:167-175.)