Job 18:6
in Job 18The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him goes out.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The light shall be dark in his tent, And his lamp above him shall be put out.
KJV
The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
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This verse in Job 18
Commentary
11 notes on this verseThe light shall the dark in his tabernacle,.... Not the light of the eye, in the tabernacle of his body, rather the light of nature and reason in him; and when that "light that is in a man becomes darkness", as our Lord says, "how great is that darkness!"
This site's exposition
the lamp of the wicked is extinguished
on Job 18:5-7
The poem opens with light: "the lamp of the wicked is extinguished", and "The light in his tent grows dark" repeats the figure. Then "His vigorous stride is shortened, and his own schemes trip him up" turns to motion. Delitzsch reads the doubled light as Bildad's opening move.
This site's exposition
the lamp beside him goes out
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain that in the East the lamp burned all night, and the poorest would give up food before the night lamp. A dark tent is utter desolation. Clarke reads the lamp that goes out as a man left with no posterity.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
The light shall be dark in his tabernacle. If we very frequently take darkness for sorrow, we ought without unfairness to take light for joy. And so 'the light is dark in his tabernacle,' in that in his conscience, which he inhabits in wickedness, the joy which he had from things temporal is brought to an end. Whence too it is fitly added; And the candle that is over him shall be put out.
We should note that the prosperity of man's success comes from two causes. Sometimes it comes from human providence, for example, when a man prudently and carefully orders each and every thing. As to this cause he says of the end of this prosperity, "The …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
His light will certainly be put out at length, quite put out, so that not the least spark of it shall remain with which to kindle another fire. Even while he is in his tabernacle, while he is in the body, which is the tabernacle of the soul ( 2 Cor. v. 1 ), the light shall be dark; he shall have no true solid comfort, no joy that is satisfying, no hope that is supporting.
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.
Or the yea may refer to Job's complaints of the great distress he was in and the darkness he should shortly make his bed in. "Yea," says Bildad, "So it is; thou art clouded, and straitened, and made miserable, and no better could be expected; for the light of the wicked shall be put out, and therefore thine shall." Observe here, 1.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
The light shall be dark in his tabernacle - His property shall be destroyed, his house pillaged, and himself and his family come to an untimely end. His candle shall be put out - He shall have no posterity.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
candle--the lamp which in the East is usually fastened to the ceiling. Oil abounds in those regions, and the lamp was kept burning all night, as now in Egypt, where the poorest would rather dispense with food than the night lamp (Ps 18:28). To put out the lamp was an image of utter desolation.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
And his candle - Margin, lamp. The reference is to a lamp that was suspended from the ceiling. The Arabians are fond of this image. Thus, they say, “Bad fortune has extinguished my lamp.” Of a man whose hopes are remarkably blasted, they say, “He is like a lamp which is immediately extinguished if you let it sink in the oil.” See Schultens. The putting out of a lamp is to the Orientals an image of utter desolation. It is the universal custom to have a light burning in their houses at night. “The houses of Egypt, in modern times, are never without lights; they burn lamps all the night long, and in every occupied apartment. So requisite to the comfort of a family is this custom reckoned, and so imperious is the power which it exercises, that the poorest people. would rather retrench part of their food than neglect it.” Paxton. It is not improbable that this custom prevailed in former times in Arabia, as it does now in Egypt; and this consideration will give increased beauty and force to this passage.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| א֭וֹר | ʾor | [the] light | H216 → | 121 times |
| חָשַׁ֣ךְ | chashakh | it grows dark | H2821 → | 17 times |
| בְּאָהֳל֑וֹ | beoholo | in tent his | H168 → | 345 times |
| וְ֝נֵר֗וֹ | venero | and lamp his | H5216 → | 49 times |
| עָלָ֥יו | ʾalav | above him | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| יִדְעָֽךְ׃ | yidakh | it is extinguished | H1846 → | 9 times |
א֭וֹר[the] light
ʾorH216 →121 times
חָשַׁ֣ךְit grows dark
chashakhH2821 →17 times
בְּאָהֳל֑וֹin tent his
beoholoH168 →345 times
וְ֝נֵר֗וֹand lamp his
veneroH5216 →49 times
עָלָ֥יוabove him
ʾalavH5921 →5755 times
יִדְעָֽךְ׃it is extinguished
yidakhH1846 →9 times
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 18:28For You, O LORD, light my lamp; my God lights up my darkness.
it leads to
- 2 Samuel 22:29
For You, O LORD, are my lamp; the LORD lights up my darkness.
- Job 29:3
when His lamp shone above my head, and by His light I walked through the darkness,
- Isaiah 42:16
I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These…
- Matthew 4:16
the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”
- 1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- 2 Samuel 22:29
Through
Revelation 18:23The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of…
it leads to
- Revelation 18:3
All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance…
- Isaiah 23:8
Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth?
- Nahum 3:4
because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.
- Revelation 18:3
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.