Job 18:5-7

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 18:5 tn Hebrew גַּם (gam, “also; moreover”), in view of what has just been said.
2. Job 18:5 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.
3. Job 18:5 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.
4. Job 18:6 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?
5. Job 18:7 tn Heb “the steps of his vigor,” the genitive being the attribute.
6. Job 18:7 tn The verb צָרַר (tsarar) means “to be cramped; to be straitened; to be hemmed in.” The trouble has hemmed him in, so that he cannot walk with the full, vigorous steps he had before. The LXX has “Let the meanest of men spoil his goods.”
7. Job 18:7 tn The LXX has “causes him to stumble,” which many commentators accept, but this involves the transposition of the three letters. The verb is שָׁלַךְ (shalakh, “throw”) not כָּשַׁל (kashal, “stumble”).