Job 18:5-6

18:5 “Yes, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished;

his flame of fire does not shine.

18:6 The light in his tent grows dark;

his lamp above him is extinguished.

Job 18:12

18:12 Calamity is hungry for him,

and misfortune is ready at his side.

Job 18:18

18:18 He is driven from light into darkness

and is banished from the world.


tn Hebrew גַּם (gam, “also; moreover”), in view of what has just been said.

sn The lamp or the light can have a number of uses in the Bible. Here it is probably an implied metaphor for prosperity and happiness, for the good life itself.

tn The expression is literally “the flame of his fire,” but the pronominal suffix qualifies the entire bound construction. The two words together intensify the idea of the flame.

tn The LXX interprets a little more precisely: “his lamp shall be put out with him.”

sn This thesis of Bildad will be questioned by Job in 21:17 – how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?

tn The jussive is occasionally used without its normal sense and only as an imperfect (see GKC 323 §109.k).

tn There are a number of suggestions for אֹנוֹ (’ono). Some take it as “vigor”: thus “his strength is hungry.” Others take it as “iniquity”: thus “his iniquity/trouble is hungry.”

tn The expression means that misfortune is right there to destroy him whenever there is the opportunity.

tn The verbs in this verse are plural; without the expressed subject they should be taken in the passive sense.