Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 18:13
It shall devour the strength of his skin: [even] the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
13. The verse reads,
It shall devour the members of his body,
Even the firstborn of death shall devour his members.
The subject it in clause one is the “firstborn of death” in clause two; cf. a similar construction, Jdg 5:20, “they fought from heaven, the stars in their courses fought against Sisera”. “Members of his body” is literally the pieces (“parts” ch. Job 41:12) of his skin. The firstborn of death is the strongest child of death (Gen 49:3); or else, less naturally, the “deadliest death,” cf. firstborn of the poor (= the very poorest) Isa 14:30; in any case the phrase means the most terrible and fatal disease. The Arabs call deadly diseases “daughters of destiny” destiny, as the bacchanal fatalist sings,
Ordained for us and we ordained for it.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It shall devour the strength of his skin – Margin, bars. The margin is a correct translation of the Hebrew. The word used ( badey, construct with oro – his skin) means bars, staves, branches, and here denotes his limbs, members; or, more literally, the bones, as supports of the skin, or the human frame. The bones are regarded as the bars, or the framework, holding the other parts of the body in their place, and over which the skin is stretched. The word it here refers to the first-born of death in the other hemistich of the verse; and the meaning is, that the strength of his body shal be entirely exhausted.
The first-born of death – The first-born is usually spoken of as distinguished for vigor and strength; Gen 49:3, Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength; and the idea conveyed here by the first-born of death is the most fearful and destructive disease that death has ever engendered; compare Miltons description of the progeny of sin, in Paradise Los. Diseases are called the sons or children of death by the Arabs, (see Schultens in loc.,) as being begotten by it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 13. It shall devour the strength of his skin] This may refer to the elephant, or to the rhinoceros, whose skin scarcely any dart can pierce: but in the case referred to above, the animal is taken in a pitfall, and then the first-born of death – a sudden and overwhelming stroke – deprives him of life. See the account of hunting the elephant in the East at the end of the chapter. See Clarke on Job 18:21. The Chaldee has: “The strength of his skin shall devour his flesh; and the angel of death shall consume his children.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The strength of his skin, Heb. the bars, or rather, the branches of the skin, i.e. either the veins and sinews, which branch out themselves through the skin as well as elsewhere; or the fat and flesh, which like bars support the skin, and adorn and beautify it, as branches do a tree; without which the skirt is shrivelled up and deformed.
The first-born of death, i.e. a most remarkable and terrible kind of death. The first-born was the chief of his brethren, and therefore this title is given to things eminent in their kind, as Isa 14:30; Col 1:18; Heb 12:23; Rev 1:5.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. UMBREIThas “he” for “it,” that is, “in the rage ofhunger he shall devour his own body”; or, “his ownchildren” (La 4:10).Rather, “destruction” from Job18:12 is nominative to “devour.”
strengthrather,”members” (literally, the “branches” of a tree).
the first-born of deathapersonification full of poetical horror. The first-born son held thechief place (Ge 49:3); so herethe chiefest (most deadly) disease that death has everengendered (Isa 14:30;”first-born of the poor”the poorest). The Arabs callfever, “daughter of death.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
It shall devour the strength of his skin,…. Or “the bars of his skin” x, the strength and support of his body, for which his skin may be put, as the bones; or “the branches of his skin” y, the veins, which like so many branches run under, and may be seen through the skin: now these, it, famine, or want of food, devours, and destroys the strength and beauty of the skin, cause it to be black like an oven, La 4:8; bring a man to a mere skeleton, to skin and bones, waste and consume the members of his body, his flesh, and blood, and bones; the Targum, Jarchi, and Aben Ezra, by “his bars” or “branches” understand his children, which are his bars, the strength of him, and are to him as branches to a tree, proceeding from him; and if we render it, as some do, he “shall devour” z, or “eat”, that is, the wicked man, it points to us the most horrible scene in a famine, which is shocking and shuddering, and yet what has been, as in the sieges of Samaria and Jerusalem, a parent’s eating and devouring his own children, 2Ki 6:28; but rather the “it [is] the firstborn of death”, in the next clause, which is to be supplied from thence here:
[even] the firstborn of death shall devour his strength; and so Mr. Broughton translates the whole verse,
“a strange death shall eat all the branches of his body, all its branches shall it eat;”
which the Targum interprets of the angel of death, him which has the power of death: but rather it signifies not what presides over death, but what death first produces, which are corruption and rottenness, dust and worms; these are the firstborn of death, or the firstfruits and effects of it, and which devour and destroy not the skin only, but the whole body and all its members: or “the firstborn death” a; death, which is a firstborn, it is the firstborn of sin; sin is its parent, last conceives sin, and that brings forth death; death is the child of sin, and is its firstborn, and sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and this is what devours and destroys the strength of men. Some understand by firstborn death a premature one, death before the usual time or common course of nature; wicked men do not live out half their days; and when they are taken off in their youth, in the prime of their days and strength, and amidst all their wealth, riches, and pleasures, this is the first, or firstborn death, as that is a secondary one which is late, in the time of old age. This is the ingenious thought of Pineda; but, perhaps, rather, as the firstborn is the chief and principal, so here may be meant the chiefest of deaths, the most hard, cruel, and severe; the first of those, that death has under it, which are principally the sword, famine, pestilence, and the noisome beast, see Re 6:8; it is commonly thought that famine is intended, spoken of in the context; but why not rather some thing distinct from it, and particularly the pestilence? since that is emphatically called death by the Jews, and in the passage last referred to, and is the terror by night, and the arrow that flies by day, even the pestilence that walks in darkness, and the destruction that wastes at noonday; by means of which thousands and ten thousands of wicked men fall at the sides of good men, when it does not affect them: and so may be the evil particularly threatened to a wicked man here, see
Ps 91:5.
x “vectes cutis suae”, Tigurine version, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Schultens, Michaelis. y “Ramos cutis”, Montanus, Vatablus, Drusius, Mercerus, Schmidt “ramos corporis ipsius”, Cocceius. z “comedet”, Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus. a “primogenita mors”, V. L.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(13) The strength of his skin.This verse should probably be rendered, It shall devour the members of his body, even the firstborn of death shall devour his members; and by the firstborn of death is probably to be understood some wasting disease such as Jobs, the phrase being so used as a euphemism.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Strength Hebrew, Baddim. The same word is used twice in this verse, and means parts or members. Skin stands here for body, as in Exo 22:27. The discourse now becomes personal, for the disease Job had eats its way as Bildad describes. AEschylus speaks of “leprosies that assail the flesh with fierce fangs, and entirely eat away its original nature.” Choephori, 279. Firstborn of death Whatever is pre-eminent in its kind is called in the Scriptures “the firstborn.” If the Arab deems “fevers to be the daughters of death,” the terrible elephantiasis may well be called his firstborn. Death has his family, and at the head of the dismal brood stands, in the Semitic mind, this most dreaded disease.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 18:13. It shall devour, &c. Filthy ulcers shall consume his skin; an untimely death shall destroy his children. Heath and Houbigant. This sarcasm was peculiarly adapted to the case of Job, whose skin was thus consumed, and whose children had been destroyed in this manner. The reader must have had occasion frequently to remark, in this book, how often, amid the sublimity of the eastern metaphors, the author drops the metaphor, and treats of his subject simply: as in the present case; having spoken of the wicked man under the metaphor of a wild beast caught in a snare, in this verse he considered him no longer in that view, but speaks of him immediately in his own character.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 18:13 It shall devour the strength of his skin: [even] the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
Ver. 13. It shall devour the strength of his skin ] i.e. His bones, which support his skin; these destruction shall devour or swallow up at a bite, as a hungry monster.
The firstborn of death shall devour his strength
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
strength = parts or members of his body.
skin. Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of the Part), App-6, for the whole body. Compare Exo 22:26.
firstborn of death: i.e. the chief, or worst, or cruellest death. Figure of speech Euphemismos. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
strength: Heb. bars, Job 17:16, Jon 2:6
the firstborn: Gen 49:3, Isa 14:30, Rev 6:8
Reciprocal: Job 18:15 – dwell 1Co 15:55 – is thy victory
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 18:13. It shall devour, &c. Filthy ulcers shall consume his skin; an untimely death shall destroy his children. Heath and Houbigant. This sarcasm was peculiarly adapted to the case of Job, whose skin was thus consumed, and whose children had been destroyed in this manner. The reader must have had occasion frequently to remark, in this book, how often, amidst the sublimity of the eastern metaphors, the author drops the metaphor and treats of his subject simply; as in the present case, having spoken of the wicked man under the metaphor of a wild beast caught in a snare, in this verse he considers him no longer in that view, but speaks of him immediately in his own character. Dodd.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
18:13 It shall devour the strength of his skin: [even] the {h} firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
(h) That is, some strong and violent death will consume his strength: or as the Hebrew word signifies his members or parts.