# the valley of the shadow of death

idiom · CEFR C1

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/the-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death
Updated: 2026-07-29

## Meaning

A time or place of extreme danger, fear, or hardship.

## Examples

- During the illness, they walked through the valley of the shadow of death together.
- The soldiers who came home spoke little about the valley of the shadow of death they had passed through overseas.
- For eighteen months the family lived in the valley of the shadow of death, moving between hospital wards and sleepless nights, holding on to the one promise that mattered: that this darkness, however deep, was a valley to be crossed and not a country to be settled in.

## Origin

The phrase is the most famous line of the twenty-third Psalm, verse 4, in the King James Version: yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. The Hebrew word behind the phrase suggests deep gloom or darkness, and the King James translators rendered it as a landscape — a dark, dangerous valley one must pass through rather than remain in, since the psalm's comfort is precisely that the walker keeps moving and is not left alone. In English the valley of the shadow of death names any stretch of grave danger, terror, or suffering — a mortal illness, a war zone, a season of despair — usually with the psalm's implied hope that it is something you pass through, not a place you stay.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.