Job 8:14
in Job 8His confidence is fragile; his security is in a spider’s web.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Whose confidence shall break in sunder, And whose trust is a spider’s web.
KJV
Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider’s web.
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This verse in Job 8
Commentary
9 notes on this verseHis own folly shall not satisfy him, and whose trust shall be a spider's web. For it is infinite folly to labour painfully, and pant after the breath of applause, to apply one's self to the heavenly precepts with hard toil, but to aim at the reward of an earthly kind of recompense. For that I may so express myself, he that in return for the good that he practises looks for the applause of his fellowcreatures, is carrying an article of great worth to be sold at a mean price.
This site's exposition
Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh
on Job 8:11-15
The poem on the wicked opens with papyrus, plants that flourish only where water stands and "dry up quicker than grass" once it is gone. The line "his security is in a spider’s web" names a structure built to look secure and unable to bear weight.
This site's exposition
His confidence is fragile
Barnes reports that some end Bildad's quotation of the fathers at verse 13 and others carry it to verse 19. The picture moves from papyrus to a spider's web. Clarke finds the confidence of the godless as fragile as that web.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
He shows how the hope of the hypocrite perishes as he continues, "His folly will not please him." Here we should consider that a hypocrite has a vain heart, indeed, for he neglects spiritual things and is only interested in things of time. He is …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
The secure and prosperous sinner may think himself wronged when he is compared to a rush and a flag; he thinks he has a better root. "We will allow him his conceit," says Bildad, "and give him all the advantage he can desire, and bring him in suddenly cut off." He is here represented as Nebuchadnezzar was in his own dream ( Dan. iv.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Hope - Whose wealth and outward glory, the matter of his hope, and trust, shall be cut off suddenly and violently taken away from him. Web - Which tho' it be formed with great art and industry, is easily swept down, or pulled in pieces.
Whose hope shall be cut off,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Whose hope shall be cut off - Such persons, subdued by the strong habits of sin, hope on fruitlessly, till the last thread of the web of life is cut off from the beam; and then they find no more strength in their hope than is in the threads of the spider’s web. Mr. Good renders, Thus shall their support rot away. The foundation on which they trust is rotten, and by and by the whole superstructure of their confidence shall tumble into ruin.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Whose hope shall be cut off - Schultens supposes that the quotation from the ancients closes with Job 8:13, and that these are the comments of Bildad on the passage to which he had referred. Rosenmuller and Noyes continue the quotation to the close of Job 8:19; Dr. Good closes it at Job 8:13. It seems to me that it is extended further than Job 8:13, and probably it is to be regarded as continued to the close of Job 8:18. The beginning of this verse has been very variously rendered. Dr. Good says that it has never been understood, and proposes to translate it, “thus shall his support rot away.” Noyes renders it, “whose expectation shall come to naught;” Gesenius, “shall be cut off.” Jerome, Non ei placebit vecordia sua. “his madness (do age, rage, or frenzy) shall not please him?” The Septuagint, “his house shall be uninhabitable, and his tent shall pass away as the spider.” The Hebrew word translated “cut off” (יקט yāqôṭ) is from קוט kūṭ, usually meaning to loathe, to nauseate, to be offensive. Gesenius supposes that the word here is synonymous with the Arabic “to be cut off.” But this sense does not occur elsewhere in the Hebrew, and it is doubtful whether this is the true sense of the phrase. In the Hebrew word there is probably always the idea of loathing, of being offensive, irksome, or disgusting; see Psa 95:10, I was grieved; Job 10:1, is weary; Eze 6:9, shall loathe; so Eze 20:43; Eze 36:31; Eze 16:47, a tiresome, or disgusting object. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
whose confidence shall be cut off His confidence and his trust Will be cut off
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
So are the ways of all those who forget God to prosper when it goes well with him until his measure [of sin] is full.
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. 5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֲשֶׁר־ | ʾasher- | [the one] who | H834 → | 5497 times |
| יָק֥וֹט | yakot | it snaps | H6990 → | |
| כִּסְל֑וֹ | kislo | confidence his | H3689 → | 13 times |
| וּבֵ֥ית | uveit | and [is the] house of | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| עַ֝כָּבִ֗ישׁ | ʾakavish | a spider | H5908 → | |
| מִבְטַחֽוֹ׃ | mivtacho | trust his | H4009 → | 15 times |
אֲשֶׁר־[the one] who
ʾasher-H834 →5497 times
יָק֥וֹטit snaps
yakotH6990 →
כִּסְל֑וֹconfidence his
kisloH3689 →13 times
וּבֵ֥יתand [is the] house of
uveitH1004 →2046 times
עַ֝כָּבִ֗ישׁa spider
ʾakavishH5908 →
מִבְטַחֽוֹ׃trust his
mivtachoH4009 →15 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
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; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book VIII; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.
