Job 18:12
in Job 18His strength is depleted, and calamity is ready at his side.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
His strength shall be hunger-bitten, And calamity shall be ready at his side.
KJV
His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.
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This verse in Job 18
Commentary
6 notes on this verseLet his strength be hungerbitten, and starvation invade his ribs. After the manner of Holy Scripture, he has the appearance of wishing that which he foresees will be, not surely in the spirit of one uttering curses, but of one pronouncing prophesies. Thus every man, in that he consists of soul and flesh, is as it were made up of strength and weakness. For by virtue of that part, by which he was created a reasoning spirit, he is not improperly called 'strong,' but in respect of that, by which he is of a fleshly substance, he is weak.
This site's exposition
Terrors shall make him afraid on every side
on Job 18:11-14
Terrors shall make him afraid on every side moves the poem from trap to pursuit, driving the wicked man to his feet in flight from dangers named only as terrors. His strength shall be hungerbitten pictures famine eating strength from within, and destruction shall be ready at his side keeps disaster waiting even where no immediate blow has fallen. It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength personifies death's own firstborn as a devourer, a phrase the commentators read as plague or a fatal disease given the rank of death's own heir. His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors closes the unit with the poem's most famous line, death crowned as a king the wicked man cannot escape, a personification Jamieson, Fausset and Brown and Gill both read as death in its full and final terror rather than any one lesser danger.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
on Job 18:5-21
In this he seems, all along, to have an eye to Job's complaints of the miserable condition he was in, that he was in the dark, bewildered, ensnared, terrified, and hastening out of the world. "This," says Bildad, "is the condition of a wicked man; and therefore thou art one." Second Address of Eliphaz.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
His strength shall be hungerbitten - Shall be exhausted by hunger or famine. And destruction shall be ready at his side - Hebrew “Shall be fitted” נכוּן nākûn “to his side.” Some have supposed that this refers to some disease, like the pleurisy, that would adhere closely to his side. So Jerome understands it.
Bildad was declaring the history of the hypocritical, presumptuous and wicked man. And he intended, no doubt, to insinuate that Job was just such a person—that he had been a deceiver and that, therefore, God's Providence had at last revealed him and was visiting him for his sins. In this, Bildad was guilty of great injustice to his friend. All the three miserable comforters of Job were mistaken in the special aim of their discourses and yet, concerning the speeches of each one, it may be said that their general statements were, for the most part, true.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
The Hebrew is brief and bold, "his strength is hungry." destruction--that is, a great calamity (Pr 1:27). ready at his side--close at hand to destroy him (Pr 19:29).
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
He shall eat the branches of his body And he shall devour all the rest of his branches, viz. his sons and daughters.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יְהִי־ | yehi- | it is | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| רָעֵ֥ב | raev | hungry | H7457 → | 20 times |
| אֹנ֑וֹ | ʾono | trouble his | H202 → | 13 times |
| וְ֝אֵ֗יד | veeid | and disaster | H343 → | 24 times |
| נָכ֥וֹן | nakhon | [is] prepared | H3559 → | 217 times |
| לְצַלְעֽוֹ׃ | letzalo | for stumbling his | H6761 → |
יְהִי־it is
yehi-H1961 →3559 times
רָעֵ֥בhungry
raevH7457 →20 times
אֹנ֑וֹtrouble his
ʾonoH202 →13 times
וְ֝אֵ֗ידand disaster
veeidH343 →24 times
נָכ֥וֹן[is] prepared
nakhonH3559 →217 times
לְצַלְעֽוֹ׃for stumbling his
letzaloH6761 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 34:10Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
it leads to
- Psalms 84:11
For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.
- Matthew 6:32
For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
- Psalms 104:21
The young lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.
- Luke 1:51–53
He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
- Job 4:10–11
The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.
- Psalms 84:11
Through
1 Samuel 2:5The well-fed hire themselves out for food, but the starving hunger no more. The barren woman gives birth to seven, but she who has many sons pines away.
it leads to
- Psalms 113:9
He settles the barren woman in her home as a joyful mother to her children. Hallelujah!
- Luke 1:53
He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.
- Jeremiah 15:9
The mother of seven will grow faint; she will breathe her last breath. Her sun will set while it is still day; she will be disgraced and humiliated. And the rest I will put…
- Psalms 113:9
About Job
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1510: “The Hunger-Bite” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.