If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. "Cover" - literally, bruise, or overwhelm, as in Genesis 3:15 х shuwp (H7779)]; Job 9:17. So the Septuagint and Vulgate here, 'shall tread down.' The darkness and night are not here regarded as a friendly cloak to hide the Psalmist as a guilty fugitive from the presence and the avenging band of God (Job 34:22; Jeremiah 23:24); but as an overwhelming mist of gloom, in which his enemies can effect their plots against him (Isaiah 50:10). The "darkness" and "the night" here are parallel to "trouble" in Psalms 138:7, "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me." The reviving there answers to "light about me" here. "Surely" - literally, only; nothing but. If nothing else can, at least surely the darkness shall crush me.