Common misinterpretations treat the verse literally as advice against staying awake at night or preferring darkness due to literal deaths occurring then, overlooking its symbolic language where night represents sudden judgment or doom; others disconnect it from Elihu's broader defense of God's justice, viewing it as a random proverb, a curse on insomniacs, or an endorsement of fatalism without the call to seek divine favor and repentance.
Job 36:20
King James Version (1769)
20 Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.
Elihu warns Job against desiring the night, a metaphor for calamity, death, or divine judgment that suddenly cuts people off in their places, encouraging him instead to pursue God's light, justice, and righteousness rather than succumbing to despair or rebellion amid suffering, emphasizing trust in God's sovereign order over longing for destruction.