Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 18:12
His strength shall be hunger-bitten, and destruction [shall be] ready at his side.
12. hunger-bitten ] A word formed like “frost-bitten,” “cankerbit” (Lear, 5.3). The word literally means “hungry,” and the figure expresses the idea that his strength shall diminish and become feeble, as one does that is famished; cf. a similar strong figure, Joe 1:12, “Joy is withered away from the sons of men.” On the figure in the second clause cf. ch. Job 15:23.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
12 14. The closing scenes in three steps: his strength is weakened; his body consumed by a terrible disease; he is led away to the dark king.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
His strength shall be hungerbitten – Shall be exhausted by hunger or famine.
And destruction shall be ready at his side – Hebrew Shall be fitted nakun 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. Schultens has quoted some passages from Arabic poets, in which calamities are represented as breaking the side. Bildad refers probably, to some heavy judgments that would crush a man; such that the ribs, or the human frame, could not bear; and the meaning is, that a wicked man would be certainly crushed by misfortune.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 18:12
His strength shall be hunger-bitten.
The hunger-biter
I. A curse which will be fulfilled upon the ungodly. It is not said that they are hunger-bitten, but that their strength is so; and if their strength is hunger-bitten, what must their weakness be? When a mans strength is bitten with hunger, what a hunger must be raging throughout the whole of his nature! A large proportion of men make their gold to be their strength, their castle, and high tower. But every ungodly man ought to know that riches are not forever, and often they take to themselves wings and flee away. If this hunger does not come upon the ungodly man during the former part of his life, it will come to him at the close of it.
II. The kind of discipline through which God puts the self-righteous when He means to save them. Many people are very religious, but are not saved. When God means to save a man, the hunger of the heart comes in and devours all his boasted excellence. Some are very satisfied because, in addition to a commendable life they have performed certain ceremonies to which they impute great sanctity. May your strength be hunger-bitten if you are resting in anything which is external and unspiritual.
III. There are many of Gods servants whose strength is lamentably hunger-bitten. They may be hunger-bitten through not feeding upon the Word of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
His strength; either,
1. His children, which are, and are called, a mans strength, as Gen 49:3; Psa 127:4,5. Or rather,
2. His wealth, and power, and prosperity. Hunger-bitten, or famished, i.e. utterly consumed.
Shall be ready at his side, i.e. shall follow him at the heels, as a most diligent servant, or constant companion.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. The Hebrew is briefand bold, “his strength is hungry.”
destructionthat is, agreat calamity (Pr 1:27).
ready at his sidecloseat hand to destroy him (Pr 19:29).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
His strength shall be hungerbitten,…. Or “shall be famine” u, or hunger, that is, shall be weakened by it; famine is a sore evil, and greatly weakens thee natural strength of men; want of food will soon bring down the strength of the strongest man, when the stay and the staff, the sustenance and support of man’s nature is taken from him: many of the Jewish writers, by “his strength”, understand his children, who are, as Jacob said of Reuben, his might, and the beginning of his strength, Ge 49:3; and when grown up are his protection and defence; and for these to be distressed with hunger, or destroyed by famine, is a sore judgment; so the Targum paraphrases it, his firstborn son; Jarchi interprets it, his son; and Ben Gersom, his seed or offspring:
and destruction [shall be] ready at his side; or “to his rib” w; that is, his wife, as the Targum and Jarchi explain it, the Jews calling a man’s wife his rib, because the woman was originally made out of one of the ribs of man; and if this could be thought to be the sense of the word here, and what is given by them of the former clause, both make up a complete account of the destruction of a wicked man’s family, his wife and children: but rather it signifies some calamity, distress, and trouble at hand, ready prepared for wicked men, just going to be inflicted on them; for God has stores of vengeance for them, and has made ready his bow, and prepared instruments and arrows of death and destruction for them, as well as there is everlasting fire prepared, and blackness of darkness reserved for them in the world to come; for it can hardly be thought that this should be understood literally of any disease in the side, as the pleurisy, &c. which is threatening, or any mortal wound or stab there, such as Joab gave Amass under the fifth rib.
u “fames”, Beza. w “costae ejus”, Montanus, Vatablus, Grotius, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
12 His calamity looketh hunger-bitten,
And misfortune is ready for his fall.
13 It devoureth the members of his skin;
The first-born of death devoureth his members.
14 That in which he trusted is torn away out of his tent,
And he must march on to the king of terrors.
15 Beings strange to him dwell in his tent;
Brimstone is strewn over his habitation.
The description of the actual and total destruction of the evil-doer now begins with (as Job 24:14, after the manner of the voluntative forms already used in Job 24:9). Step by step it traces his course to the total destruction, which leaves no trace of him, but still bears evident marks of being the fulfilment of the curse pronounced upon him. In opposition to this explanation, Targ., Raschi, and others, explain according to Gen 49:3: the son of his manhood’s strength becomes hungry, which sounds comical rather than tragic; another Targ. transl.: he becomes hungry in his mourning, which is indeed inadmissible, because the signif. planctus , luctus , belongs to the derivatives of , , but not to . But even the translation recently adopted by Ew., Stick., and Schlottm., “his strength becomes hungry,” is unsatisfactory; for it is in itself no misfortune to be hungry, and does not in itself signify “exhausted with hunger.” It is also an odd metaphor, that strength becomes hungry; we would then rather read with Reiske, , famelicus in media potentia sua . But as signifies strength (Job 18:7), so (root , to breathe and pant) signifies both wickedness and evil (the latter either as evil = calamity, or as anhelitus, sorrow, Arab. ain ); and the thought that his (i.e., appointed to the evil-doer) calamity is hungry to swallow him up (Syr., Hirz., Hahn, and others), suits the parallelism perfectly: “and misfortune stands ready for his fall.”
(Note: If elsewhere corresponds to the Arabic rugb , to be voraciously hungry, the Arab. rab , to be paralyzed with fright, might correspond to it in the present passage: “from all sides spectres alarm him ( from = Arab. bgt , to fall suddenly upon any one; or better: = bt , to hunt up, excitare, to cause to rise, to fill with alarm) and urge him forward, seizing on his heels; then his strength becomes a paralyzing fright ( ), and destruction is ready to overwhelm him.” The rob ( , thus in Damascus) or rab ( , thus in Hauran and among the Beduins) is a state of mind which only occurs among us in a lower degree, but among the Arabs it is worthy of note as a psychological fact. If the wahm (Arab. ‘l – whm ), or idea of some great and inevitable danger or misfortune, overpowers the Arab, all strength of mind and body suddenly forsakes him, so that he breaks down powerless and defenceless. Thus on July 8, 1860, in Damascus, in a few hours, about 6000 Christian men were slain, without any one raising a hand or uttering a cry for mercy. Both European and native doctors have assured me the rob in Arabia kills, and I have witnessed instances myself. Since it often produces a stiffness of the limbs with chronic paralysis, all kinds of paralysis are called rob , and the paralytics marub . – Wetzst.)
signifies prop. a weight, burden, then a load of suffering, and gen. calamity (root , Arab. ada , e.g., Sur. 2, 256, la jaaduhu , it is not difficult for him, and adda , comp. on Psa 31:12); and not: at his side (Ges., Ew., Schlottm., Hahn), but, according to Psa 35:15; Psa 38:18: for his fall (lxx freely, but correctly: ); for instead of “at the side” (Arab. ila ganbi ), they no more say in Hebrew than in Germ. “at the ribs.”
Job 18:13 figuratively describes how calamity takes possession of him. The members, which are called in Job 17:7, as parts of the form of the body, are here called , as the parts into which the body branches out, or rather, since the word originally signifies a part, as that which is actually split off (vid., on Job 17:16, where it denotes “cross-bars”), or according to appearance that which rises up, and from this primary signification applied to the body and plants, the members (not merely as Farisol interprets: the veins) of which the body consists and into which it is distributed. (distinct from , Job 16:15, similar in meaning to Arab. baschar , but also to the Arab. gild , of which the former signifies rather the epidermis, the latter the skin in the widest sense) is the soluble surface of the naked animal body. devours this, and indeed, as the repetition implies, gradually, but surely and entirely. “The first-born of the poor,” Isa 14:30, are those not merely who belong ( ) to the race of the poor, but the poor in the highest sense and first rank. So here diseases are conceived of as children of death, as in the Arabic malignant fevers are called benat el – menjeh , daughters of fate or death; that disease which Bildad has in his mind, as the one more terrible and dangerous than all others, he calls the “first-born of death,” as that in which the whole destroying power of death is contained, as in the first-born the whole strength of his parent.
(Note: In Arabic the positive is expressed in the same metonymies with abu, e.g., abu ‘l – cher , the benevolent; on the other hand, e.g., ibn elhhage is much stronger than abu ‘l – hhage : the person who is called ibn is conceived of as a child of these conditions; they belong to his inmost nature, and have not merely affected him slightly and passed off. The Hebrew represents the superlative, because among Semites the power and dignity of the father is transmitted to the first-born. So far as I know, the Arab does not use this superlative; for what is terrible and revolting he uses “mother,” e.g., umm el – faritt , mother of death, a name for the plague (in one of the modern popular poets of Damascus), umm el – quashshash , mother of the sweeping death, a name for war (in the same); for that which awakens the emotions of joy and grief he frequently uses “daughter.” In an Arabian song of victory the fatal arrows are called benat el – mot , and the heroes (slayers) in the battle ben el – mot , which is similar to the figure used in the book of Job. Moreover, that disease which eats up the limbs could not be described by a more appropriate epithet than . Its proper name is shunned in common life; and if it is necessary to mention those who are affected with it, they always say sadat el – gudhama to avoid offending the company, or to escape the curse of the thing mentioned. – Wetzst.)
The Targ. understands the figure similarly, since it transl. (angel of death); another Targ. has instead , the firstling of death, which is intended in the sense of the primogenita (= praematura ) mors of Jerome. Least of all is it to be understood with Ewald as an intensive expression for , 1Sa 20:31, of the evil-doer as liable to death. While now disease in the most fearful form consumes the body of the evil-doer, (with Dag.f. impl., as Job 8:14; Job 31:24, Olsh. 198, b) (a collective word, which signifies everything in which he trusted) is torn away out of his tent; thus also Rosenm., Ew., and Umbr. explain, while Hirz., Hlgst., Schlottm., and Hahn regard as in apposition to , in favour of which Job 8:14 is only a seemingly suitable parallel. It means everything that made the ungodly man happy as head of a household, and gave him the brightest hopes of the future. This is torn away ( evellitur ) from his household, so that he, who is dying off, alone survives. Thus, therefore, Job 18:14 describes how he also himself dies at last. Several modern expositors, especially Stickel, after the example of Jerome ( et calcet super eum quasi rex interitus ), and of the Syr. ( praecipitem eum reddent terrores regis ), take as subj., which is syntactically possible (vid., Job 27:20; Job 30:15): and destruction causes him to march towards itself (Ges.: fugant eum ) like a military leader; but since signifies to cause to approach, and since no (to itself) stands with it, is to be considered as denoting the goal, especially as never directly signifies instar. In the passage advanced in its favour it denotes that which anything becomes, that which one makes a thing by the mode of treatment (Job 39:16), or whither anything extends (e.g., in Schultens on Job 13:12: they had claws li-machlbi, i.e., “approaching to the claws” of wild beasts).
(Note: Comp a note infra on Job 21:4. – Tr.)
One falls into these strange interpretations when one departs from the accentuation, which unites quite correctly by Munach.
Death itself is called “the king of terrors,” in distinction from the terrible disease which is called its first-born. Death is also personified elsewhere, as Isa 28:15, and esp. Psa 49:15, where it appears as a , ruler in Hades, as in the Indian mythology the name of the infernal king Jamas signifies the tyrant or the tamer. The biblical representation does not recognise a king of Hades, as Jamas and Pluto: the judicial power of death is allotted to angels, of whom one, the angel of the abyss, is called Abaddon ( ), Rev 9:11; and the chief possessor of this judicial power, , is, according to Heb 2:14, the angel-prince, who, according to the prologue of our book, has also brought a fatal disease upon Job, without, however, in this instance being able to go further than to bring him to the brink of the abyss. It would therefore not be contrary to the spirit of the book if we were to understand Satan by the king of terrors, who, among other appellations in Jewish theology, is called , because he has his existence in the Thohu, and seeks to hurl back every living being into the Thohu. But since the prologue casts a veil over that which remains unknown in this world in the midst of tragic woes, and since a reference to Satan is found nowhere else in the book – on the contrary, Job himself and the friends trace back directly to God that mysterious affliction which forms the dramatic knot – we understand (which is perfectly sufficient) by the king of terrors death itself, and with Hirz., Ew., and most expositors, transl.: “and it causes him to march onward to the king of terrors.” The “it” is a secret power, as also elsewhere the fem. is used as neut. to denote the “dark power” (Ewald, 294, b) of natural and supernatural events, although sometimes, e.g., Job 4:16; Isa 14:9, the masc. is also so applied. After the evil-doer is tormented for a while with temporary , and made tender, and reduced to ripeness for death by the first-born of death, he falls into the possession of the king of himself; slowly and solemnly, but surely and inevitably (as implies, with which is combined the idea of the march of a criminal to the place of execution), he is led to this king by an unseen arm.
In Job 18:15 the description advances another step deeper into the calamity of the evil-doer’s habitation, which is now become completely desolate. Since Job 18:15 says that brimstone (from heaven, Gen 19:24; Psa 11:6) is strewn over the evil-doer’s habitation, i.e., in order to mark it as a place that, having been visited with the fulfilment of the curse, shall not henceforth be rebuilt and inhabited (vid., Deu 29:22., and supra, on Job 15:28), Job 18:15 cannot be intended to affirm that a company of men strange to him take up their abode in his tent. But we shall not, however, on that account take as the subj. of . The only natural translation is: what does not belong to him dwells in his tent (Ew. 294, b); , elsewhere praepos. (Job 4:11, Job 4:20; Job 24:7.), is here an adverb of negation, as which it is often used as an intensive of , e.g., Exo 14:11. It is unnecessary to take the as partitive (Hirz.), although it can have a special signification, as Deu 28:55 (because not), by being separated from . The neutral fem. refers to such inhabitants as are described in Isa 13:20., Job 27:10., Job 34:11., Zep 2:9, and in other descriptions of desolation. Creatures and things which are strange to the deceased rich man, as jackals and nettles, inhabit his domain, which is appointed to eternal unfruitfulness; neither children nor possessions survive him to keep up his name. What does dwell in his tent serves only to keep up the recollection of the curse which has overtaken him.
(Note: The desolation of his house is the most terrible calamity for the Semite, i.e., when all belonging to his family die or are reduced to poverty, their habitation is desolated, and their ruins are become the byword of future generations. For the Beduin especially, although his hair tent leaves no mark, the thought of the desolation of his house, the extinction of his hospitable hearth, is terrible. – Wetzst.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(12) His strength.By strength some understand his firstborn son, as Gen. 49:3, but it is not necessary to take it otherwise than literally.
Destruction shall be ready at his side.Or, according to some, for his halting; shall lie in wait for his tripping in order to overthrow him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Decade, a. Ravenous calamity, maiming disease, (see note Job 2:7,) and inexorable death three insatiate furies remand the wicked to the king of terrors, while the doom of Sodom falls upon his habitation, and all that remains to him, Job 18:12-16.
12. His strength This might better be read, his calamity shall be hungry, (for him,) though the older interpreters adopt the other meaning of , strength. “Calamity” furnishes a more satisfactory parallel for “destruction,” , which is a stronger word, signifying literally “a load of suffering.”
At his side Others read “for his fall.” Destruction awaits the results which itself accomplishes.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 18:12. His strength shall be hunger-bitten The Vulgate renders this, His strength shall be eaten by famine; which appears to be a good translation, and still keeps up the image in the former verses: as does the next clause, Destruction shall be ready at, or for his side, alluding to the arrow which is fitted to the string, and ready to be discharged at him. See ch. Job 12:5.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 18:12 His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction [shall be] ready at his side.
Ver. 12. His strength shall be hunger bitten ] Heb. His strength (or wealth) shall be famine, Fit famelicum robur eius. Or, Famine shall be his strength. He, who while, having health and wealth at will, fared deliciously and gathered strength, shall be hunger starved, and hardly have prisoner’s pittance; so much only as will neither keep him alive nor suffer him to die. See 1Sa 2:5 ; 1Sa 2:36 . It is as much, saith Brentius, as we use to say of an extreme poor or feeble person, his wealth is poverty, his strength weakness.
And destruction shall be ready at his side
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
strength, &c. i.e. shall be weakened by hunger. Same word as Job 18:7, not same as Job 18:13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
hungerbitten: Job 15:23, Job 15:24, 1Sa 2:5, 1Sa 2:36, Psa 34:10, Psa 109:10
destruction: Psa 7:12-14, 1Th 5:3, 2Pe 2:3
Reciprocal: Job 18:15 – dwell Luk 9:7 – Herod
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
18:12 His strength shall be {g} hungerbitten, and destruction [shall be] ready at his side.
(g) That which should nourish him will be consumed by famine.